DISCLAIMER

Simply don't own InuYasha, okay? If I did, I'd throw InuYasha to Ebony, Kouga to Jackie, and keep Sesshomaru to myself. You'd never get to see them ever again XP

Time to really reev this up to speed, eh? I guess I'll do something exciting here. Hm... I'm considering turning this fic to a M, though I'm not too sure yet. Give me some opinions about this issue, please!


Chapter VII: Dojo

3rd Person P.O.V.

" You're here early," Damsei's voice was heard behind Rose, who was examining the weapons among the walls. One has gotten her attention, since it stood out from the rest. A white swallow was hanging on a wall above the others, indicating that it was important or something. (Think of Serge's weapon from Chrono Cross)

" Of course," she replied cooly as she turns to him. " I enjoy fighting, so I arrive early."

(( But me, I'd rather sit in my kitchen, drinking coffee. Which I'm doing as I typed this. Cheeee! ))

" I know that very few females like to fight, so I'm a bit surprised to hear that," he replied. ' She's very much like Lord Sesshomaru. That's a scary thought.'

" So, how is this fight going to be as? Weapon?" Rose asked a bit boredly.

" Of course. Just let me clear everyone out of the way." As he walks off to get everyone to the sides of the dojo room, Rose pulled her rod from her back, where it was always kept now that she was there at the castle grounds. Sure, she could handle a sword, but she prefered her own weapon over others.

" My money's on our general."

" No female will beat him."

" I don't know, maybe she'll win."

" When will we get outta here for lunch?" Rose heard some of the soldiers say.

' Talk about alot of faith in a male...' she thought as she went to face Damsei in the middle of the floor. He was already with his two swords out.

" Ready?" Rose nods. " Then it begins!"

He launched himself at her with power instead of speed. Rose blocked off both swords with the spikes on her rod, then thrusted them back, away from her face. Damsei regained his balance and attacked again. Rose dodged one, blocked the other, then attacked with speedy jabs in the chest. He managed to dodged them all and brought one sword down on her again.

' He's very strong at attacks, but not speed,' Rose thought as she tried to block it. The blow shook her arms as she knocked it away, but she refused to look at all disturbed, which she wasn't. She suddenly seemed to disappear, and while Damsei was trying to figure out where she went, she was already above him and whacked him in the side of the head with the flat side of the head rod. As soon as she landed, he was out of the daze and was after her again. All the soldiers were cheering for whoever they thought will win. While they continued parying with each other for nearly thirty minutes, Sesshomaru was watching from the doorway enterance.

Damsei attacked with both swords again. But something happened this time; They literally snapped the rod into pieces. Her face showed nothing, but she was devastated about the broken rod of wood and steel spikes. It has been her choice of weapon because of the fact that her great-great-great-great grandmother have used this weapon alone to fight the Chaos Warriors. She hoped to continue that tradition... Ripping off the two pieces of jewerly from the strings and discarding the rod aside, she avoided all of Damsei's attacks. He wasn't about to stop just because of his opponent's broken weapon. Leaping to the wall of weapons, she grabbed the one that seemed to pull her to it - the same white swallow. With little effort, she pulled it off the wall and backflipped over Damsei, who was slightly caught off-guard. He recovered quickly enough and charged again, Rose blocking it with the one of the side blades. The weapon seemed to sing to her ears of pure joy, being used in battle at last. She blinked at the high pitch, but shook it off with a shrug and attacked again.

She just figured out that it would be quite some time before she could get used to the swallow. It was light and everything, but the balance felt very weird. All she did so far was use one side or another to block. Swinging it was also another issue to get the hang of. It nearly knocked her off her feet! Only Sesshomaru noticed this, but continued to watch without intrupting.

" X Slash!" Damsei yelled out as his swords glowed with fire. Slashing it in a X, he directed it at her. Rose managed to save her head by ducking under it. It got her shoulder, but she pushed that aside for some other time to worry about.

" Fine, have it your way," Rose said as she started to charge. " Light Dash." In a blur of light and motion, Rose passed Damsei and stopped behind him, the blade to the back of his throat just barely touching. She turned her head to look at him freeze with the blade touching him. They were back-to-back, meaning Rose had her arm behind her while doing the term, 'checkmate', blade to the neck. She sneered. " You are dead."

The sound of clapping echoed in the room. Only then did the soldiers realize their lord was here. They quickly stood at attention and saluted. Any servant that was watching the fight dropped to the ground, bowing, as Sesshomaru walked into the dojo room. Rose was the only one not saluting or bowing to him.

" Quite a fight. You defeated my top general, even with you being very inexperianced with that weapon."

" Just plain luck," Rose said as she bent down next to her broken rod, sighing. ' What am I to do with this now...?' The swallow in her hands hummed in protest when she thought about finding someone to help fix the Holy Life rod. ' Great, not only do I have my rod broken, the new one is alive and arguing with me...'

" What's more interesting than having my general defeated is that you have managed to pull that weapon off the wall," Sesshomaru continued as he listened in to what she thought to herself. " It never allowed anyone else to touch it until today."

" Oh, really?" Rose said, trying hard to look like she didn't care. She looked at the handle area more closely, realizing there were words etched in it.

" Rose V. Hope this comes in handy, - Kevin." As soon as Rose read that, the writing disappeared back into the leathered handle.

' Great, Kevin the Prophet knew I was going to need this... Gee, thanks, great-great-great-great grandfather...' Rose thought, not knowing that Sesshomaru heard it.

' Ah yes, the Prophet who approached my grandfather and presented the weapon to him as a token of gratitude.' " Since apparently you will be the only one to touch it, you may keep it. Damsei, find the best swordforger and have her rod repaired," he ordered emotionlessly as he turned and left.

" Of course, mi'lord," Damsei said with another salute. Rose just scrowled at him, relently letting one of the servents picking up the ro and carrying it as she followed Damsei out of the dojo. Many of the soldiers congratulated Rose on her victory, though telling her that she won't be able to do it again anytime soon. She just ignored them as she left the room, clinging to both the swallow and the two jewerlies she picked from her rod.

Now to the forest, there were a group of travelers that just wondered into the West territory. And not any travelers, but -

" Hey! Give that back!"

THUD

" Get lost, runt."

" Kagome, he hit me!"

" InuYasha, sit!"

BOOM

... the infamous InuYasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and Kirara. And, as always -

" What the fuck was that for, Kagome!"

" SIT!"

BOOM

" For picking on poor Shippou."

... hunting for jewel shards.

" Seems that we've entered your brother's territory, InuYasha," Miroku commented as he looks around. " Kagome, are you sure that a shard is in this territory?"

" Positive," Kagome answered.

" I suggest that we stop soon, to rest up in case of any encounters with Sesshomaru," Sango said.

" Feh!" InuYasha huffed as he got out of his foot-deep hole in the ground. " I can handle that arrogent bastard!"

" That's good to hear," Kagome said. " Because we gotta continue further here."

" What demon or person would be STUPID enough to get this far into my brother's territory?" InuYasha demanded. Without waiting for an answer, InuYasha hurried forward and continued hunting for the whatever it was that had the shard.

" Of course, he runs off and tries to find trouble," Miroku sighed.

" Just follow the idiot," Kagome said as she heaved the giant bag onto her back and rode on her bike.

" Whee..." Shippou said sarcastically as he wished for his bag of chips InuYasha stole back.

Now, for another new point...

" Well, this thing certainly took a beating..." Totousi said as Damsei presented the rod to him. Only Damsei of the Sesshomaru army knows where this famous sword maker lives. He keeps it quiet though, since he remembers Sesshomaru trying to force the guy to make him a sword more powerful than Tesuiga (sp?). " I actually remember this thing. Hadn't it belonged to the famous Rose L.M.?"

" Yes, now her desendment owns it, along with that swallow, Kenzil."

" Yes, yes, 'The Life Sword'," Totousi said absently. " I remember forging it for that Kevin fellow when he asked for that weapon, even though he has his golden sword. Yes, this would be very difficult..."

" Will you be able to fix it?" Damsei said a bit more demandly.

" Yes, though I may need her to come down here for a fang. Now get on out of here, I got work to do."

" Thank you, Master Totousi," Damsei said with a bow, leaving the fire demon to his works.

Aaaaaand back to the program

" Why is math important?" Astor asked as they sat in the library.

" To be able to caculate your own financial works, and whatnot," Rose answered as she finished off making easy problems. " You know addition and subtraction, now something a bit more difficult. Multiplication."

" What's that?" Rin asked.

" It is kinda like this. Say you got 3 times 4. If you put it in a simple form, it's 3+3+3+3, or 4+4+4."

" OH! Four 3's, or three 4's added together, depending on the number's!"

" Yup. Give it a try, and ask if you get stuck," Rose said as they set to work with their feather pens. Rose thought about introducing pencils in the near future. Kasiya was watching them, just enjoying the sight of the kids learning.

" Done!" they declared as they handed the papers back. Rose checked them, and they both didn't miss anything.

" Excellent job. Think we are done for the day?"

" YES!" they declared as they got up and ran for the outside garden.

" Just like me and the algebra classroom," Rose murmered with a smile.

" You enjoy being here, regardless that our lord forced you?" Kasiya asked. Rose dropped her smile as she shrugged.

" At least he is leaving me alone."

" Come on, you know that he isn't that bad. He didn't kill you or Astor, right?"

" He would have done me a favor of killing me, but I am not to die by wishful thinking," Rose replied. Kasiya frowned slightly (as a beak could frown), but didn't ask why. If Rose wasn't going to tell her what happened to her, she would not ask. " Well, I guess I will be going to my room. Tell Mr. High & Mighty that I will, again, not eat. See you later."

" Bye," Kasiya said as Rose left. " Poor girl, hopefully Sesshomaru and Rose can help each other with their difficulties of their past and trust of others."


Well, hope the chapter was okay! Now, don't bug me about self-intersection, Mary Sue, or ANYTHING like that! No flames! I have got enough of that in my Teen Titan story! Thank you for listening to my ranting. Next chappie, coming soon!