Three days. That was exactly how long Sesshomaru had been fighting. As soon as he had stepped foot onto the Continent, he had been under attack. The yokai lord was surprised. The natives of the Continent and immediately attacked him, and it appeared that they had no fear of his yokai aura or appearance.
At first, he thought they were dumb.
After the first day, he thought them loyal to their commanding officers.
After the third day, he realized they were possessed. It was impossible for humans to attack him this continually without a break for sleep or food. The humans did not smell dead, but he also could not tell what was controlling them.
Letting out a growl of rage, Sesshomaru ripped through another wave of the men, Tokijin's power waning slightly with continual use. Even Sesshomaru was feeling the burden of this battle, and he started to look for a way to escape, or at least make them stop attacking for a few moments.
Taking a breath, he swung Tokijin in a large arc, but did not release the demonic power trapped inside of it. Following his first attack with a swing from Tensiega, Sesshomaru watched as the men slowly fell to the ground, their bodies twitching slight. Apparently, attacking them to weaken their defenses then releasing Tensiega freed the men from being possessed. After figuring out his strategy, Sesshomaru quickly streaked through the lines of the men, attacking with both swords as rapidly as possible. The men slowly started to tumble down behind him, like dominos, and he knew his strategy was working.
It took Sesshomaru two more hours to stop the soldiers. What was left of his squad was huddled in a circle, some of the men badly wounded, while others passed out from fatigue. The Lord had been unable to find his elite squad; four other inu-youkai of lesser or equal strength to him self. That worried him.
"Lord Sesshomaru, what will be our next move?" Asked one of the soldiers, a large bandage wrapped around his head and over his left eye.
"You and the remainder of the men will retreat back to the boats for medical care and rest. I will have to go on ahead alone." The silver-haired inu replied, rubbing his stiff right shoulder with his left hand. There were some protests but they were stopped. He was their commander, his word was law.
"Understood, sir. Men, let's move out." The other soldiers groaned as they rose to their feet, the majority of them limping or leaning on each other. "Do you want us to send a message to General Inuyasha?" Another soldier asked his left arm in a sling.
"Yes." Sesshomaru chewed on his lower lip for a moment, thinking of a message that was simple, short, and in code. "Tell him that he will have to retrieve Semimaru."
The soldier was confused, but nodded quickly, "understood sir. I will send that on message on as quickly as possible."
"Good." Without so much as a goodbye, Sesshomaru was off, becoming a white and black blur.
"I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!" Furiously tearing apart my small room, I let out an annoyed yell. "I need to see the outside! I want to go to the hot spring! I EVEN WANT TO TRAIN!" Yelling out my anxieties to the uncaring walls of my room I sat down heavily, nearly ready to start crying. Sesshomaru had been gone for four days, but it felt like four years! Flinging my futon cover across the wall, I let out another annoyed scream, flopping onto my back. 'I'll run away! I will join another army! I will… I'll…' Thinking ludicrous thoughts to my self, I was startled as something red barreled through my door.
"Would you shut-up all ready? You're so freakin' loud!" Inuyasha was staring down at me, his dog ears plastered flat on his skull. "I'm trying to plan a war strategy but I can barely hear my self think with you yelling!" he was hardly acting like a refined lord.
"Then let me out of here! I need to see the sky!"
"Will that shut you up?" The General asked, his golden eyes narrowed.
"Yes! I want to have a bath! I want to do something that's not in this room!" I replied with a scream, my hands slapping the futon underneath me.
Sighing in defeat, InuYasha slowly nodded, rubbing his temple gently. "There's a human festival or something going on now in the town part of Miramesha, would that be enough?"
I gasped, quickly sitting up. "Oh yes! I love festivals; do you know which one it is?"
Inuyasha scowled, "of course not! I don't pay attention to your weird human customs!"
'Weird… You're one to talk; at least I don't have dog-ears.' I thought to my self, and I quickly stood, pulling on a light hakama and then thick tami and soldier geta. I continued to disguise my self as a boy, even without my Quarter around, it seemed like the best idea. "I will have to go with you, on account of the promise I made Sesshomaru…" Inuyasha did not seem too happy about this.
"Let's go then!" Grabbing his hand, I practically dragged the yokai lord out of the military fort, through the soldier's barracks and the first gates, and out into the city streets.
Gasping happily, I looked around as I realized it was the Autumn Festival! The Autumn Festival meant it was my birthday! Laughing exuberantly, I ran towards the nearest stand, peering at trinkets and other assortments of goods. "What are you so happy about?" InuYasha asked after catching up to me, his hands tucked into his red kimono sleeves.
"I'm sixteen now! The Autumn Festival was the time I was born!"
"Really?" InuYasha seemed surprised for a moment, but then turned his attention to a koi-fish catching booth. "What's that?" He asked with a frown, tilting his head in the booth's direction.
"That's koi catching! Come on, it's a lot of fun!" I pulled InuYasha to the booth, a grin spreading across my face.
We spent the next five hours running about through out the festival, me explaining most of the customs and games to InuYasha, who had never been to a festival before. Inuyasha seemed to enjoy my company and explanations, even if he was a bit gruff.
As the day waned, many people started to close their shops, people anticipating the up coming fire works show. "Having you ever seen fireworks, Lord Inuyasha?" I asked quietly, watching as men ran back and forth between the booths and the launch site, getting ready with fireworks.
"No, what are they?" He asked after a moment, taking a large bite of his fried squid.
"It's like colored fire in the sky, it's really pretty. I saw it twice before, when I was much younger. I remember the time so well because I was with my mother." I smiled happily at the fond memories, lacing my hands together in front of me.
"Where's you're mother now?" Inuyasha asked after a moment, finishing off his squid.
"She died, about ten years ago." I said quietly, sighing softly.
"My mother's dead too." InuYasha replied in the same tone, tossing the stick to the side.
I frowned, I had wanted to ask Inuyasha something for a while now, but I had not found the right words yet. Deciding to ask anyway, no matter how weird, I looked over at him. "Lord Inuyasha, what's a hanyo?"
Inuyasha smiled slightly, a hand reaching up to scratch behind his left ear. "I knew you would ask eventually. A hanyo is simply a half-yokai and half-human being. I am a hanyo."
"So you're mother was a human?"
"Yes, she died about fifty years ago." He replied nonchalantly, staring off into the distance.
I was a bit surprised; Inuyasha was over fifty years old then! "Then… How long do yokai live?" I asked slowly, eyeing him.
"I am currently sixty-seven years old. Sesshomaru… Well…" Inuyasha smirked. "He's 143 years old. I don't know how old my Father is, but he's at least 400."
I stood there, flabbergasted. I had no idea that Yokai could live that long! Sesshomaru had already lived the equivalent of two human life times, yet he was so handsome and seemed so full of life. "Wow…"
"Wow barely expresses it." InuYasha said, smirking slightly. "Sesshomaru may be old to you, but if he were a human he would be eighteen to nineteen years old, while I would be sixteen or seventeen."
I nodded slowly, rubbing my chin gently. "Yokai are confusing."
InuYasha snorted, "hardly. Humans are the confusing ones, why in the world do you have a festival for fall?"
"Because we can."
"That's not a reason."
"Yes it is."
"No it is not."
"Yes it is!"
"No it isn't!"
"Arg! Baka!"
"Smelly!"
"Shut-up!" I scowled at him for a moment, he was wearing the same expression as me, but suddenly we both started to laugh. "Fine, we're both weird in each others eyes."
"That's true." Inuyasha replied, sticking his tongue out at me.
"Oh! The fireworks are starting!" I grinned, and tugged at his sleeve, pointing up at the darkened sky.
Blazes of color splashed across the sky, and InuYasha and I watched the spectacle. This year the people running the show were still getting used to the idea of fireworks, and they only did simple patterns, but they were still pretty and they entertained Inuyasha and me for a while. As we walked back to the fort, Inuyasha and I chatted quietly about the differences between human and yokai. We decided the biggest difference was age and appearance. It was true, all most all humans looked the same, but youkai were different, and all were beautiful.
Inuyasha looked up suddenly, his dog-ears alert. Suddenly, a large hawk-messenger came careening into view, landing on one of the towers in the court. Inuyasha immediately recognized it; the white cloth around its left claw meaning it was a message from Lord Sesshomaru. "I have pressing matter to attend to, see you tomorrow Lady Kagome." He quickly bowed politely, and was gone from me in a flash, using amazing speed to jump across rooftops and over walls. Frowning, I was a bit worried, my mood happy from my day. Besides, one should never get bad news on one's birthday, right?