"He will come after me," Kagome stated as they watched her friends fly away.
"The slayer and monk will hold him off for a while," Sesshoumaru replied. "When they half breed does come you do not have to accompany me to see him off."
"Thank you," Kagome said feeling truly grateful.
"No thanks is necessary," Sesshoumaru said "I have now publicly declared you my ward, and I do not take my duties lightly. If there is ever anything that you require that I have not had the foresight to provide you will inform me at once. Now, my patrol was interrupted by a particularly annoying creature on my last round, you will accompany me today."
Kagome just smirked Sesshoumaru had just made a jab at her, and of course she had no way to be certain, but she thought that it must hint at a sense of humor. At that moment she decided that she lived in a world where wonders would never cease. For a long time they traveled in silence just feeling their surroundings when suddenly they came to the top of a hill. What lay beneath them was enough to take Kagome's breath away. It was a field full of lilies as white as Sesshoumaru's kimono. Without even thinking Kagome left his side and began to walk among the field.
Sesshoumaru couldn't help but smirk. It seemed that like his first ward his new one had a thing for flowers. However unlike Rin she did not run among them plucking the ones she deemed most beautiful. Instead she gracefully walked among them occasionally reaching out to gently caress the blooms that she deemed worthy of her touch. Sesshoumaru mused to himself that the field of lilies had never looked more lovely. The girl's transformation had been quite a change. He had never really looked at her as anything other than a nuisance before. In hindsight he supposed that she had not been as displeasing on the eyes as most humans. Now though she was a thing of beauty, her demonic blood giving her perfect almost elfin like features. Not that he was attracted to her; he was accustomed to the more aggressive nature of demonesses. When a demoness saw something that she wanted she went after it in no uncertain terms. Sesshoumaru would know after all he had became quite adept at turning down their advances. Slowly he began to make his way down to the lovely demoness that had become his new ward. "You like the flowers," he more stated than asked.
"They are absolutely beautiful," she replied.
"If you are fond of them, why not gather a few to keep in your rooms at the palace," he questioned?
"Because when you pick them they die," she mater of factly replied. "I want to enjoy their beauty, not watch them wither away and die."
With out speaking Sesshoumaru reached out and plucked a flower that he thought had aesthetic appeal. Kagome watched with interest as he summoned his poison into his claws, the air filling with a bitter sweet smell. He gently placed a small drop of it onto the stem that he had severed from the plant "My poison, and yours as well I assume, has the power not only to destroy, but also to preserve." He held the flower out to her and said "here a flower that is now as immortal as I am. It will not die until I have left this world."
"Thank you," Kagome stammered not sure how to adequately thank the demon standing before her for all that he had recently done for her. Before Kagome could further consider the entirety of the debt that she owed the creature before her the wind changed, and it carried a smell that even as a human she had been able to recognize. It was the scent of a village that was being burned to the ground, except now with her demonic sense of smell she could also detect the undeniable smells of pain and death that came along with it. Quickly she jerked her head to where she sensed the scent and took a quick step in that direction, but before she could get any further Sesshoumaru was there in front of her. "It is not our concern," he stated in a voice even colder than she was accustomed to hearing from him.
"A village is being destroyed on your lands, and it isn't our concern," she demanded.
"I am a demon Lord," he curtly replied "my subjects are also demon. The humans are insects, a plague on my land. They refuse to acknowledge a demon lord, and I will not acknowledge a human subject."
"Rin, was an insect," Kagome demanded.
"Rin was different," Sesshoumaru defended.
"They almost all are if you bother to look," she exclaimed.
"It is not my fight they are meant to be crushed under foot when they are in your way, not defended when it would be a bother," he explained.
"Well," she angrily retorted "in case it slipped your notice I was an insect until recently, and that makes this my fight. Here hold this." With that she thrust her flower at him and began to summon her demon cloud, which she was glad her mother had insisted she master. But before she could get off the ground Sesshoumaru grabbed her arm.
"I will not intervene," he said.
"I expect no less from the ice prince," Kagome said in a tone so cold that it rivaled his own. And with that she was finally off.
When Kagome arrived at the village the scene that was playing out before her eyes was almost enough to bring her to tears. The villagers were fighting a loosing battle. There was not only one, but three upper level demons wreaking havoc on their once peaceful home. Most of the village was engulfed in flames, and the smell of those who had already fallen was thick in the air. She was momentarily so lost in what was going on around her that she almost didn't notice Sesshoumaru's graceful landing next to her. "You are too late," he told her "all is lost."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," she defiantly declared. She took but a moment to survey her surroundings and zero in on a stream that ran along the outskirts of the village. With what seemed to be no effort she concentrated on the waters flowing through it and with but a flick of her wrist she sent the water over the whole village, extinguishing the flames. That taken care of she turned her attention to the demons that were still intent on carnage. With one final thought before she rushed into battle she turned to Sesshoumaru, "By the way I forgot to have a weapon made since I got here." Before he could know her intent she reached to his waist and grabbed Toiken. Sesshoumaru started to snatch it back, after all no one but he could control his sword. But before he reacted he saw something that gave him pause. Kagome's aura was embracing the untamable sword and somehow making it stable. Assured that his ward was not about to become a mindless beast he relaxed himself as he watched her head into battle. He observed the sounds and scents of war. They were distractions that he had learned as a child to block out and ignore. However, as he prepared to observe his new ward in a test of her skills, there was one scent that he could not ignore. The scent of the tears that she had not shed carried stronger to him than the scent of the smoldering flames that she had just extinguished.