Originally part of chapter two, now chapter four. Edited 6/25/16.
Sorcerousfang: Boy, am I on a roll.
Sesshomaru: All thanks to me, your muse.
"Go away!"
The girl had defiantly stepped forward, tiny hands balled into fists. The demon laughed outright, amused by her antics, while Mizuki stared in disbelief. How could this little girl have the guts to stand up to a demon like this? Shouldn't she be running?!
"And give up a couple of tasty morsels like the two of you?" he questioned in pleasure. "A child and one with power; I couldn't ask for a better meal."
"Lord Sesshomaru will be mad if you hurt me," the girl explained confidently.
Lord who? And what the hell did he mean one with power?
The demon seemed to have the same problem of recognition she was having, if the slight tilt of his head indicated anything.
"And where is this Lord Sesshomaru now, little-"
He was cut off as a glowing green rope seemed to flash around him, and his eyes widened in surprise. Then all at once his body split into pieces, slashed apart by the light as it danced and retreated behind them. Mizuki couldn't look away. Bile rose in her throat, her stomach clenching in utter revulsion as it turned. The thing was dead. It was dead because it was torn apart by some freaky light and there was blood and everything everywhere…
"Lord Sesshomaru!"
She was finally able to pull her eyes away from the sight with the redirection provided by the little girl's voice. Turning toward where the girl was cheerfully smiling, she found herself looking up at a tall man in white clothing trimmed with red. Elaborate armor covered his chest and thighs, dark in contrast to the flowing yellow and purple obi tied around his waist, and two sword hilts adorned his left hip. His right side was occupied by a large pelt.
"Were you hurt, Rin?" he questioned the girl, though he didn't sound very concerned, which drew Mizuki's attention up to his face. He was handsome, somewhat feminine, if she dared, with smooth features broken by colorful stripes across his cheeks and above his eyes, and a crescent moon of a bluer hue in the center of his forehead.
Golden eyes, white hair, strange markings… Her heart pounded in warning. This man was not human.
"Not at all, my lord," the young girl answered cheerfully, smoothing down her orange and tan kimono and leaving Mizuki to wonder if the girl was fazed by anything. The small ponytail on the side of her head bobbed around as she shook it, the rest of her hair following more smoothly. "This lady helped me. Oh, but she's hurt now!"
The girl's attention turned from the man back to her, remembering that the one who helped her had gotten hurt doing so. Mizuki put on a strained smile in an attempt to comfort her.
"It's not too bad, I think," she tried. Not her best lie in the world, but hopefully the girl would be pacified by it. "I'm just glad you're okay."
"But there's a lot of blood, Miss…" she trailed off.
Maybe a little familiarity would help the situation.
"You can call me Mizuki," she introduced herself. "Your name is Rin, right?"
She brightened a little. "Oh, yes, it is! Thank you for helping me, Miss Mizuki," Rin answered enthusiastically, making her smile. The child then turned toward the stoic man beside her.
"Lord Sesshomaru, Miss Mizuki got hurt because she helped me," she explained. "May I help her with her wound?"
Mizuki looked up at him, the slight cheerfulness Rin had brought to her vanishing when she found his sharp gaze directed at her, and swallowed thickly.
"Rin, you shouldn't ask such things of Lord Sesshomaru!" squawked another voice, this one lower to the ground. Her gaze immediately shot down to the left of the man's legs, only to find a small, green demon brandishing a staff with two heads on the top. When had he gotten there?! His large yellow eyes were attempting to glare holes into her, and she flinched back. How many more demons did this girl know? Rin wasn't one, too, right?
The little demon was completely ignored except for the defiant look Rin shot his way before her attention went straight back to the indifferent man obviously in charge. Mizuki found her gaze caught in his once again, before he turned away dispassionately.
"Do as you wish," he said simply, leaving her feeling both relieved and mildly annoyed by his tone. A thank you would have been nice to hear – he might not have been able to save Rin if she hadn't tackled her – but she figured she should just count her blessings. It appeared that not all demons were big on eating humans.
The little demon questioned his decision in protest, though he sounded far more worn out about it. Perhaps he was ignored a lot, and considering he had basically suggested they just leave her and continue on with their lives, she was sure she wasn't going to listen to him much herself.
"Miss Mizuki, can you stand?" Rin asked her after thanking the man happily.
"Yeah, I think I can manage that," she replied with a smile. The girl's cheerfulness was hard to resist.
"Let's go over to the river so we can clean your arm," she suggested, and Mizuki nodded in response.
Rin took her hand to lead her despite it being covered in blood. Not that she had really needed it, but having the girl hold on to her made her feel that she was being taken care of.
She wasn't alone.
That thought made her let out a breath she realized she had been holding since last night.
While walking, Rin introduced the small demon (an imp, now that she thought about the picture books she'd had as a kid) as Jaken, as she took his peeved glances to mean that he was upset that she hadn't said anything about him yet. Mizuki offered him a small smile, but he completely dismissed it and mumbled something about lousy humans, which elicited a small glare from her. Being afraid of him had been silly, she realized as she took in his size and responses to Rin. He was like a jealous kid.
When they were nearly at the river, Mizuki jumped at the sight of a large, two-headed dragon as it grumbled out some sort of response to their approach. Rin smiled at the creature before she realized the owner of the hand in her own had stopped, and looked up with a bright smile that suddenly dispelled her fears.
"This is Ah and Un," she introduced each head in turn. "They are very nice, so please don't be afraid."
She nodded silently, unsure what to say. All at once, demons and dragons and wounds…she wasn't sure it was all going to fit in her head yet. Culture shock; that's what she had likened it to last night. Nothing was really registering right now.
Of course, that could just be because her arm hurt like hell and the whole running for her life thing was catching up to her.
"We need something to wrap your arm up with," Rin voiced when nothing more was said.
Mizuki looked around the area they were in. There were a few trees, the nice little river, the demon who didn't seem to be watching them but whose gaze she could swear she was feeling nonetheless…nothing good for wrapping her arm. She doubted the two demons would help.
A thought occurred to her, and she released the girl's hand to remove her backpack from her back.
"I might have something," she said quickly, and sat down heavily beside a tree.
Mizuki was definitely feeling tired now, but she shifted through her stuff nonetheless. She needed something to bandage this up with. She couldn't use her shirt since that was all she had to wear, and her jacket wasn't the right material for the job and would be too hot to wear in place of her shirt for a long period of time. There wasn't much in her bag except for her magazine, notebook, and crackers, and none of those could help.
Maybe…
She flushed a deep red, sparing the man to her right a quick glance. She could use her bra, since, being of the sports variety, it would make a nice strip of fabric, and it wasn't entirely necessary given her relatively flat chest. Being the type it was, though, she would have to remove her shirt to remove it, which meant being half-naked in front of a man she had just met. Flat-chested or not, that was downright uncomfortable and not a position she wanted to be in.
"Miss Mizuki, is everything alright?" Rin asked her, gently prodding her good shoulder. She shook her head quickly, attempting to dispel the blush, before giving the small girl a smile.
"I'm fine," she assured her, and then turned her attention to the girl's companions. The little imp was staring at her incredulously, while the demon beside him hardly paid her much mind, merely blinking with a bored expression on his otherwise blank face to acknowledge that he had noticed her attention was directed at him.
It was the only thing she could think of, aside from tearing off fabric from someone else's clothing, and she didn't want to ask for that favor. Realizing that, she resigned herself to the embarrassment.
"Could…I ask you two to turn around?" she requested quietly. "I need to take my shirt off so I have something to bandage this up with…"
The imp spoke first.
"You dare order Lord Sesshomaru to do something, you insolent little human!?" he barked, waving his strange staff around over his head.
"I asked nicely!" she snapped, and quickly regretted it. The shout made her head spin, making her wonder how much blood someone needed to lose before they passed out. She held a hand to her head, closing her eyes to get rid of the feeling.
"Jaken."
She looked up at the sound of the other demon's voice. He had been a man of few words so far, and she wasn't sure if it was because he didn't care or because he was the type who didn't appreciate small talk, so to hear him speak in a somewhat reprimanding tone was a little different. She blinked up at him in wonder, and he acknowledged her with a glance before turning his back to them. The imp followed suit with a small grumble, making Mizuki smile.
"Thanks," she added for good measure. He didn't say anything back, but she felt better nonetheless.
Removing her shirt was a difficult matter, as she tried to do so without moving her left arm, and found that to be impossible. Every shift hurt like hell, and she was glad for the shirt being somewhat loose on her. She pulled her right arm through the sleeve, bunched it up over her shoulder, and managed to get her head out of it before carefully sliding it down her left arm.
She blinked at the curious eyes of Rin as she watched in amazement. It took her a moment to realize her clothing must have looked very strange to the girl.
"It's my weird clothes, huh?" she questioned with a smile.
"You do dress very strangely," she agreed straightforwardly. "Your clothes look very cumbersome."
Her pattern of speech was somewhat matter-of-fact, but considering her company was that of two demons and a dragon, she figured the girl had probably picked it up from her companions.
That aside, wiggling out of her sports bra was another matter entirely. Doing what she did with her shirt would be much more difficult with the fabric being tighter, which made her wish she had gone with one of her less comfortable, more normal choices. Of course, she wouldn't have anything to use for her arm were that the case, so it was a moot point. Rin didn't look as though she knew if she could help at all, though she was looking at her sympathetically.
She took a deep breath.
"If I just think of it like a band-aid," she thought as she carefully crossed her arms over her chest, "then I'll do it quickly."
The countdown went far faster than she would have liked before she flipped the article over her head, and she hissed loudly when the movement aggravated her wound about a hundred times more than she expected. She rolled into herself, cradling her arm in her lap as she rocked back and forth.
"You moved too fast!" Rin declared as she got down on her hands and knees to look at Mizuki's face. She laughed despite the pain - gods, the girl was adorable - and smiled a smile she tried to keep from looking forced.
"I'm alright," she assured her, easing herself upright again. "You think we can use this to wrap up my arm?"
Rin took the bra from her, glancing it over curiously.
"Yes," she affirmed. "Is it okay if I rip it up?"
Mizuki nodded. She had another one with her luggage. Surviving without one for a little bit wouldn't be too bad.
She soon discovered, however, that a sports bra was a difficult thing to rip, and Mizuki didn't have the strength to get it started herself when she tried. Suddenly faced with this little obstacle, Rin jumped up with a smile and informed her that she had an idea, and walked straight over to the demon standing off to the side of them.
"Lord Sesshomaru, may I ask something of you?" she questioned innocently, and Mizuki's face regained the flush she had experienced when she first thought of this whole idea with the bra.
He was now looking at it as Rin presented the article to him, which turned the wattage of her face up about twenty more shades.
Sports bra though it was, Mizuki was never so bold as to wear it alone when the situation called for it, which made her regard the clothing with a bit more of a personal air. Sure, he had absolutely no idea what it meant for a man to see a woman's bra, she was certain of that, but the idea that he was looking at it…
She missed the exchange between the two, and managed to get her thoughts together when he pulled one of the swords from his waist and stuck it in the ground between himself and Rin. She smiled warmly before taking the fabric to one of its sides, where the thread and elastic gave easily against the blade. She quickly made use of the sharp edge to turn the article into a suitable bandage, pulling out the thin padding when it interrupted her work, and cheerfully thanked him when she was finished.
The demon didn't say anything in response, but Mizuki was starting to realize he didn't need to. Rin knew how to read him. It was an interesting sight.
Rin was surprisingly efficient for someone so young. She determined that the elastic band would be very good for securing the fabric around her arm. The padding she had removed also made a good sponge, so that was used to clean the wound, and she was careful as she worked to clean the blood off of the rest of her arm and around her wristwatch. While she didn't ask about the futuristic device, Mizuki caught her staring at it in wonder, and resolved to explain its purpose later.
Mizuki couldn't help but wince, though, as the girl worked directly on the wound.
"Sorry," Rin said apologetically.
"No, no, it's alright," Mizuki assured her once again. "I'm just not accustomed to pain much, is all."
The girl nodded in understanding, but continued her work much more softly. Mizuki gritted her teeth against the pricks of pain, and looked around for something distracting. The demon's back made for a good tool for concentration, so she turned her attention to him.
Rin had called him Lord Sesshomaru, she reminded herself. Like Inuyasha, it was not a name she was at all familiar with, and trying to think of the kanji that made it up left her coming up with blanks aside from the typical maru male names contained around this time. Riho would have a better idea, given her interest in the meanings of all things. It didn't sound particularly friendly, but he didn't appear mean. Just quiet, and patient, if she considered his interactions with the young girl working on her arm.
Oh, ouch. She forgot she was distracting herself from that.
She forced her thoughts back to the demon. He was certainly good at keeping his word, though she couldn't say the same for the imp companion who kept slightly glancing back before catching himself and turning forward again. Never far enough to see anything, but still suspicious enough of her that he couldn't sit still. Sesshomaru didn't move a muscle. His hair didn't even move, which, considering how long the silver-white locks were, was quite a feat.
"Damn," she thought dryly. "Makes my hair look short."
He was easily over six feet tall, the height countering his somewhat soft appearance with an imposing frame. The fur over his shoulder looked comfortable enough to sleep on, though she figured if she wanted to keep her head where it was, she'd refrain from ever suggesting that outside of the privacy of her own thoughts. His opposite shoulder had a much different look due to the spiked pauldron, and the way the sleeve seemed to lay flat against him suggested there was a good reason for it.
Yes, the man was damned handsome, but she had to remind herself that if the claws and green whip from earlier suggested anything, the man was as much a demon as the one he slew.
She suddenly found herself in a fit of gagging brought on by the betraying flip of her stomach. One of the other things she was trying to forget was that the demon that had been chasing her was very much dead, cut up as easily as if the light was a hot knife passing through butter.
Rin stopped her tending of the wound in concern, and Mizuki had to push back the bile that rose in her throat so that the girl wouldn't turn around and ask him for help again. The bra was embarrassing enough; she didn't want him to see her exposed.
"It's okay, Rin," she assured her once again. "I'm fine, really. I just remembered how the demon…died, that's all."
"Oh," she said with a small hint of surprise, which made Mizuki feel rather childish. Rin wasn't sick from it in the slightest, and here she was, probably around ten years older than her, and she was flipping out about it.
"You speak as though you have never seen death," Sesshomaru suddenly said from beside her, his tone different from when he had been addressing Rin or Jaken. She flipped her gaze accusingly to him, only to find that he still had his back turned and her glare would hardly do much if it wasn't seen.
"Not like that…" she answered truthfully. What was she supposed to say? Her grandparents had died, but she was only there for the funerals. All she knew about death was a grave and a shrine, not what a dead body actually looked like. Seeing something vaguely resembling a human killed like that was jarring.
He shifted slightly, as if he wanted to turn around, but refrained from doing so. Instead, he continued.
"It was hardly different from cutting apart an animal for food."
"They're hardly alike!" she countered quickly. "You tore that thing apart! It's different…" She trailed off for a minute, looking away from his back and back to Rin, who looked torn between stepping into the argument and staying just as she was.
"…Don't get me wrong; I'm grateful. Really, I am," she said quietly, trying to subdue the irritation she felt. She owed him her life, sure, but he could stand to lay off on the holier-than-thou attitude. "I'm just…a little new to this, I guess you could say."
There was silence, and then Sesshomaru filled it once again with his observations.
"Have you never seen demons?" he questioned her with a tone that suggested he wasn't actually asking for an answer, but rather was stating a fact. "Do you not know that you were in danger, or understand who it is you are speaking with now?"
Her gaze hardened on his back once again. This man was really starting to rub her the wrong way.
"Should I fear you, then, Sesshomaru?" she asked instead of answering him, and deliberately ditched the honorific Rin and Jaken had used when addressing him. She didn't owe it to him anyway, since Rin was the one who had actually stood against the demon for her. He'd only saved her as a result of protecting the girl.
It was probably from the blood loss and the whole near-death ordeal, but she was in a sour mood, and he wasn't helping. That made turning the battle of questions back on him seem like a great option. There was no way she was going to let him get the better of her.
Jaken jumped on her for the missing formality, turning around in the process. She snagged her shirt, quickly hiding her chest just as Sesshomaru placed a well-aimed boot on the little imp's head, effectively obscuring his view. A short relief to her, but only until the demon himself turned on her, a look like one of curiosity coloring his eyes for once.
They reminded her somehow of that Inuyasha character's eyes, but colder, harder than the bright eyes of the guy she had met back in her own time.
He said nothing, so she shoved the thoughts of the dog-eared teen from her mind in favor of proving to him that she wasn't entirely weak.
"Of course you're strong," she continued. "That's obvious. The way you carry yourself says a lot about you, but you haven't given me a reason to be afraid of you. You saved my life, inadvertently or not, and you were kind enough to give me a little privacy before. Rin, a human child, is entirely comfortable around you, and so I believe I can trust you. I haven't given you any reason to kill me, and I don't think you're like the others, because you're not boasting about how delicious a meal I'd make. Honorable seems like an appropriate word for you. That is who I understand the man I'm talking to to be. That is why I'm not afraid."
In all honestly, she was a little afraid of him, though she preferred to think that she was simply respectful of his apparent strength. If she did anything wrong, she'd be dead in a heartbeat, and his attitude made her believe she wouldn't be played with either. His silence was more nerve-wracking than she wanted to believe, and what he said toward her seemed calculated. He wasn't mindlessly after his next meal like the other two; no, this demon was smart.
He said nothing, though, and merely observed her, so she turned the situation so he should have to say something, if only to keep up appearances and to deter him from asking more questions that reminded her she was five hundred years before her time.
"Is that so strange, to not fear the one who saved your life?"
For a few moments, nothing was said. Then suddenly he made a small noise that sounded like one of resignation, and he closed his eyes and turned his back to her once again.
"I suppose it is not so strange," he answered, and she smiled in triumph before she realized he had more to add. "That you have never encountered demons before, however, is."
He was sharp, too. It seemed like he knew she was trying to shift the topic, and he wasn't going to let it go until he had a sufficient answer.
"…Yeah, I haven't exactly had any experience with demons," she answered truthfully, leaning back against the tree behind her. "Doesn't mean I wasn't smart enough to realize I was going to die back there."
"Yet you attempted to save Rin," he added, "rather than running away."
"And have that on my conscience my entire life?" she bit back bitterly. "There's no way I could have just run off knowing she could die. The thing chased me there; it would have been my fault."
He was silent, apparently out of things to say for the moment, so she felt she had to continue.
"I just reacted, really. Don't ask me why; I don't think I was thinking much myself. I just know I didn't want her to die because of me.
"And I'm glad you're alright, Rin," she added, turning back to the girl. "I forgot to apologize for tackling you like that."
"It's alright," she answered back with a smile. "Rin's not hurt at all!"
Mizuki smiled.
"That's great."
It was quiet from there, leaving Rin to work in silence while Mizuki rested against the tree. Jaken even refrained from his mumbling, leaving the small area soundless save for the birds and insect life around them.
Sesshomaru, for his part, was thinking. This human was very strange, and not just in the clothing she chose to wear. Her mannerisms were not what he expected of human women, and she seemed versed in directing conversation in her favor, though it was rather roughly demonstrated. She was certainly no threat, but there was something that radiated off of her that he could not put his finger on. It may have been a reflection of power, but his instincts failed to raise any alarms to it in response, which determined it was either a non-threat or non-existent, whatever it was.
She reminded him of the woman by the side of his brother. The girl in the short kimono had that confidence that this girl possessed, and when they had first encountered one another on that night when he had made his bid for his father's fang, she acted as though the fact that he was a demon was nothing to be fazed about, as if she was ignorant of the danger she was in. Like the priestess, this girl seemed out of place. This one even smelled out of place; strange scents permeated her, sharp in his nose like smoke, but unlike it in many ways, and sweet scents that smelled like fruits he'd never encountered. She smelled like the forest around her, but only as if she had been here a very short while. Even her blood smelled foreign to him.
She did not belong here somehow. Of that, he was certain.
"Thanks, Rin," the girl said quietly, interrupting his thoughts. Apparently she was done tending to her wound, though the girl sounded lethargic now.
"We should wash the blood off of your…um," Rin started, though trailed off as if she wanted the proper name for the clothing she was speaking of.
"It's called a t-shirt," the girl provided, and following that was the sound of her shifting through her belongings. "I can wear my jacket until it dries."
Rin made an awed sound while he listened to the girl shift into a rather noisy piece of clothing, which sounded stiff until a strange sound echoed from it. It was almost as if it was tearing, though the sound was more metallic in his ears, and there was no reaction from the girl that suggested it was abnormal. When the sound ceased, she suddenly addressed him.
"I'm covered up again, so you're free to turn around," she said in a rather nonchalant tone. Then she added "sorry for the wait" almost like an afterthought.
He turned to find her dressed in a stiff, black fabric with long, thin sleeves and a strange metallic line running down the center of it. She had managed to get her left arm inside of the sleeve, which made him wonder if the fabric was somehow meant to split down the metallic line, because she had not made a sound indicating she was in pain like she had when removing her other clothing.
She attempted to stand, aiming to assist Rin, perhaps, but found that her legs did not have the strength in them that they had had when she had first encountered them. They collapsed under her, and her eyes widened in surprise before shifting unnaturally, until she found herself back in the position she had previously been in.
"Miss Mizuki!" Rin called worriedly, rushing to her side before flashing him a concerned look. He sighed inaudibly; he understood her attachment, since the girl may have very well saved her life, but this was more trouble than he had initially entertained the thought of.
"You have lost a bit of blood," he provided, attempting to ease Rin's concerns. She seemed to understand from there that the girl was not in immediate danger, so he said nothing more, though the girl let out a strangled laugh.
"Apparently so," she mused behind her hand. Her breaths were quick, indicating some distress, but nothing more. "You wouldn't happen to know what I need to do for that, would you?"
"Water," he said simply, to which she nodded.
"Can I ask a favor?" He was not sure who she was addressing, but Rin jumped in to offer her assistance. "In my bag, there's a plastic water bottle. Could you get that for me?"
Rin blinked, confused by the girl's wording, but set to the task nonetheless. She produced from her bag a clear container which contained water, and handed it over to her. She smiled gratefully before removing the top with one hand and greedily consuming its contents. When it was emptied, Rin offered to get her more, though took a long moment to observe the strange container in her hands.
She repeated the process once more a short while later, until finally the girl succumbed to sleep, and Rin could do nothing more for her for the time being.
Sesshomaru briefly wondered what he was getting himself into as Rin requested they remain until the woman woke. He agreed, much to his servant's distaste and the girl's gratitude, but not because she had asked.
He could not deny that he was incredibly curious about the woman. Damned curious.
I'm trying to keep from sounding flowery when I describe Sesshomaru, but he has so many more points of interest on him than other characters that I feel like I'm being too detailed no matter what. Mizuki's not falling for him, because this isn't that kind of story - he's just ridiculously intricate compared to the other characters that show up.
Anyway, things are lining up more with how I've planned this story, which is good. My little details are coming together. Keep watching for small recurring elements and things. Tell me if I'm doing it right.
Sesshomaru: I'm impressed you've planned as far as you have for once.
Sorcerousfang: I should feel offended by that, but I'm not.
Sesshomaru: You still don't have a proper ending, though.
Sorcerousfang: I'm working on it!