25

Kii's First Love

Day 19

Kii's feet burned. They felt hot, and itchy and all she wanted to do was prop them up on a pillow and never walk again. At the same time though, she was proud of herself. She had been in this strange, new environment for so long she lost track of the days, she was surrounded by supernatural beings that would like nothing more than to see her dead, and she had absolutely no idea how to get home. But despite all of that, she was getting stronger. Today she had followed Lord Sesshomaru and Master Jaken on their long trek up and down the tree lined mountains on their way to who knows where, and she had only needed to ride on Ah-Un four times when the mountain got too steep for her aching thighs to carry her upwards. Her bigger and more important concerns: how to get home; where she was in this forested, demon infested land; how she even ended up here; and how long Lord Sesshomaru would keep her alive; were pushed back by her smaller successes. Before she ended up in this era, she could barely walk at a brisk pace for five minutes before having to slow down. Now she was hiking up and down mountains, huffing and puffing and struggling to keep up, but still, hiking up and down, following after her captors.

Her body felt leaner, and although there was still a thick layer of unnecessary fat covering her body, that, in itself, was a huge, positive change to the timid girl she started out as. A change she never imagined she would ever make, being as lazy as she was. If she kept this ridiculous pace up, maybe in a month or two she would have the body of an athlete. Maybe she would feel more beautiful then.

Maybe if she were more beautiful, Lord Sesshomaru would have a harder time deciding to kill her.

She let out a small sigh as she looked into the dancing flames of the fire in front of her. Like that would ever happen. Lord Sesshomaru is a robot. Possessing empathy is far beyond what his programing is capable of.

The fire crackled loudly as the piece of wood Kii just threw in moments before began to be swallowed by the flames. It smelled delicious, what with the fish Jaken had just instructed her to cook now sitting inside both of their bellies, but she was still a little cold in the evening air. She got off the log she was sitting on next to Jaken, and scooted to the ground, closer to the fire. She winced as she moved, her muscles still extremely sore from all the hikes she has been putting them through, and had to lower herself slowly to ease the pain. When she got comfortable, she grabbed a stick that lay close to her and absentmindedly began to stoke the fire in an attempt to warm herself up.

It was dark out, the last of the red sunset vanishing into dark blues and purples. Soon the stars would be visible: Kii's favourite thing about the entire feudal era. There was no light pollution or smog covering Japan: just a clear, night sky illuminating the Milky Way. It was almost a shame that she never noticed it before: she had been to concerned with watching her own back, making sure nothing would sneak up on her, to properly look up. She almost forgot to breath when, a few days ago, Jaken had started talking about the moon being a crescent like the tattoo (or whatever it was) that sat on Lord Sesshomaru's face. She looked up, and the whole world just stopped. She just could not stop looking once she got a glimpse of it. It was a sight she had only seen in anime. A sight that made her wish she had joined the Astronomy club so that she could name each and every star that lined the night sky. The sky just glittered and shone with deep colours that looked like gaseous clouds far, far away, with a multitude of stars just twinkling their hellos down to earth, letting her know that they were out there.

It was breathtaking.

Surprisingly, instead of the stars, she found the biggest, and most comforting thing in the sky to be the moon. The stars were beautiful and awe inspiring, and maybe if she was in her era she would have been mesmerized by them completely, sure. But unlike the moon, those beautiful, beautiful stars were so far away. And in her era, she could not see them. In comparison, the moon shone brightly, so close that she felt like she could reach her hand out and touch it. It was the very same moon that she saw every night when she looked out her bedroom window at home. It had the same dark spots and craters, and hung in the exact same spot she expected it to be in every night, just as if she were back at home, safe and sound with her family. It was as if it were her good luck charm, telling her that everything was fine. And that if it could survive centuries of hanging in the sky and still remain the same, she could survive just one more day.

Because maybe tomorrow, she would be home.

She smiled at the thought, "I wanna be an astronaut."

"What's an astronaut?"

Kii started and dropped the stick she was using to stoke the flames. She did not realize she said that out loud. She looked over to her right where tiny Jaken, looking a weird brown thanks to the orange glow of the fire on his green skin, sat on the log with his feet just managing to touch the ground. He was staring straight at her with his large, round eyes, and beak hung open, allowing Kii to see the saliva hanging off of the deep recesses of his esophagus.

She took a deep breath.

"An astronaut is a type of job available in the country where I'm from," she started slowly. She was not sure how to phrase this in a way that he would believe. A couple days after waking up in the hot spring, Jaken had started taking an interest in her daily life. She tried telling him that she was from the future but he just looked at her like she was insane. Maybe she was insane, and she had just made up everything prior to waking up in that army camp weeks ago... She frowned. No, she had not made all of that up. She was Yamato Kitsuna, daughter of Yamato Tatsuya and Yamato Samantha. She may look more like a mix between her grandmother and her dad than her mom and her dad, what with her red hair and freckles, but that's all there was too it. She was a Yamato. That was the truth, and nothing but it. "Astronauts travel in rocket ships: silver cylindrical looking thingies that have fire coming out the end, and go into space."

Jaken squinted at her, a look she was becoming quite accustomed to every time she tried to tell him about her world: his upper and lower green eyelids came together, covering almost all of his slit-like pupils so he looked like a leering cat.

"Liar," he breathed out, and then continued to stare at her, challenging her to prove him wrong.

Slowly, she evaluated his hopeful expression. He was wanting another made up story, she knew it. She inadvertently smirked at him. Some people, including herself, would call her a bad liar. Her face always goes red, and she starts talking faster and stumbling over her words. Jaken, she soon discovered however, was about as gullible as a pre-schooler looking forward to Santa. They made a good pair.

"It's true." she exclaimed, looking back at the fire in case her smile and rosy cheeks gave her away. She took a deep breath, and then tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, "In fact, where I'm from there is a human boy who lives on a remote island who is stuck in a time loop. The moon has been possessed by a demon and every three days it falls towards earth, threatening to destroy the island. In response, every three days he plays a song on his ocarina that sends the moon back to space. But to this day, the demon has not been killed, so it just keeps making the moon fall again and again."

Carefully, she shut her mouth and tried to keep her face completely stoic as she peered at Jaken through her peripherals. His body was twisted towards her, his tiny, three toed feet sliding up the side of the mossy log he sat on. His eyes were wide now, engrossed in her story.

Her cheeks burned with delight as her heart pounded with fear that he would catch on to her lies. With all the helpless and powerlessness she had been feeling since getting here, lying to Jaken was absolutely thrilling. Jaken did not believe that she was from the future, and after being called a liar again and again, she realized that he would never believe that there were no demons where she came from. Frustrated, she had the sudden epiphany that she could make up a whole load of crap up about some far away country she was from, borrowing from her extensive knowledge of anime and video gaming, and just make it sound like her reality. She would tell him the truth, and then throw in some demon nonsense in with it. Among other things, she had told him about the witches who do delivery services with their cars, the schools filled with telekinetic students who study endlessly for their tests, the anime conventions where different demons from all over Japan gather to show off how cool they look, and the man eating titans who come out of the ocean during the monsoon months and destroy shoreline homes. While it was not too far from the truth, he gobbled it up like candy. It was a fair trade: she gained some power back, controlling what Jaken learned about modern day Japan, and he got to hear fascinating stories about the new "demons" out there in the world.

And it was all in a days work of keeping Jaken on her side, so that when this was all over, he would plead for Sesshomaru not to kill her.

"Astronauts," she continued, still as monotonous as she could make her slightly quivering, near excited voice, "have been travelling to the moon, trying to defeat the demon and save that poor boy from the endless three day cycle. That's their job. It's quite revered and very important."

Trying to quiet her pounding heart, she watched as Jaken's eye went wider still.

Then, inexplicably, he gasped, and Kii nearly had a heart attack thinking he found her a fraud, "If milord went and defeated the demon on the moon, then he would gain the respect of all of those lesser astronaut demons! They would bow before him! Milord! What do you think?!"

Her heart nearly stopped. He was not supposed to bring Lord Sesshomaru into this! He was just supposed to swallow her lies and move on! That is what he always did!

"J-jaken... I don't think Lord Sesshomaru would be interested..."

"That's Master Jaken to you! And I wasn't speaking to you! Lord Sesshomaru, what do you think?!"

Cautiously, she looked away from Jaken, over to the shadows in the trees where Sesshomaru sat, as graceful as always, staring up at the sky. He was sitting horizontal to her, nestled in a tree trunk, his silver hair and white clothing glowing faintly orange from the flickering fire. His eyes were trained on the nearly full moon, his straight, almost European-like nose pointing diagonally up to the sky, as his face tilted up. As she stared, hoping he was not going to turn his head around, she wondered for the nth time how his pants managed to stay so clean despite sitting on the dirt. And, more importantly, she hoped to god he was not paying attention to their conversation.

He turned his head to face the two of them.

She tried to keep her face as calm as possible.

They made eye contact.

Silently, she begged him not to say anything. She was not sure how much their connection affected him, but with his huge, pointy ears he should at least be able to hear her pounding heart. The damned built in lie detector had to be good for something. She had actually spent the last few days after the hot springs saying as little as possible to him, aside from the mandatory, "I'm thirsty," or, "I need to pee." Other than that, she directed all of her questions to Jaken. Now, desperate, she stared at him, as forcefully as she could without insulting him. Please! I know you know I'm lying, but please don't say anything!

Why should I listen to you? His golden eyes seemed to say.

Because Jaken would hate me if he found out I'm lying! She pleaded back at him. She knew pleading was futile, knew he probably could not understand her eye language, knew he would not care, but she had to try anyways. Jaken was her one hope of living after their connection was broken: he was the only one who would vouch for her survival, as well as the only creature she could currently talk to and make her feel normal – as normal as talking to a green imp was. Her lies gave her back a little bit more power, and his gullible-ness made her fear him less.

Looking at Sesshomaru, hoping he could read her mind, was scary, but if keeping Jaken on her side meant that she had to beg the one guy she was trying to get Jaken to turn against, so be it. Jaken was the one friend-thing she had interested in her. She could not lose him, and he had to stay interested in her. He just had to! Her eyelids widened in desperation despite keeping her face as still as possible, lest Jaken was watching and found it suspicious.

And why would one such as I even begin to care about your relationship with Jaken?

You never said anything before!

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Jaken has never directly addressed me. You ask me to play a fool to your obvious lies?

Kii's mouth gaped open as she struggled not to voice the words she almost began to mouth. You don't have to say anything at all! Just ignore him!

"Milord, are you listening?"

Sesshomaru's eyebrows seemed to pull together, although she was probably just imagining it. Since when have you thought so highly of yourself as to demand actions from me, human? Tread lightly.

Kii struggled not to break eye contact. She tried not to blink as well, but then randomly the smoke coming from the fire changed direction and billowed into her face, causing her to tear up. The wind changed directions just as fast, and after seconds of blinking, and a few more of rubbing her eyes, she looked back at Sesshomaru and found that he was still staring at her.

Weird, she thought to herself, wondering if he could actually understand her, hoping both that he could and could not. Even in her head, his threats were still terrifying.

She raised her eyes to his and reestablished contact.

I... he doesn't believe me when I say there are no demons where I'm from! How else can I explain my life?

"He~lllooo! Lord Sesshomaru are you even listening to me?"

Slowly, Sesshomaru moved his golden gaze from Kii to Jaken, who seemed like he was about to jump off the log he was sitting on. As he turned his head, Kii noticed that a few shiny strands of his hair was tangled in the bark of a branch a bit above him. As he moved, stretching his hair out past the breaking point, it simply ripped off his scalp. She could almost hear it, despite him being a distance away. Kii cringed as she watched, feeling a phantom pain on her own head. She knew that had to hurt, but Sesshomaru acted as if he did not even feel it at all. Robot...

Then he opened his mouth. Kii's heart jack hammered, "Jaken, have you ever seen the moon fall?"

"N-no, milord."

"Then why are you concerned about the moon falling to the earth?"

"Because that's what astro... astro... astronauts care about! Milord, if a being as powerful as yourself were to destroy the demon on the moon, just imagine how much more power and prestige you would hold!"

Sesshomaru slowly closed his eyes and then opened them again. "Jaken, have you ever seen the moon fall from the sky?"

"Like I said before milord, no!" Jaken warbled, "Why do you ask?"

Kii felt her whole body go still. She realized the mistake in her lie. Jaken did not believe she was from the future, he thought she was from a different country, so how would she be able to explain the moon falling? Clearly, it never has fallen before in this era, and it was not about to start now! She gulped as anxiety coursed through her. She had to think of something to say! An apology for lying, or maybe a cover up story, or maybe she could change to moon to an orange or something and have the fall from a tree...!

Sesshomaru moved his hand from his lap to the ground, his action breaking Kii's concentration. She watched as his long fingers glided over to a pine cone, grasped it in his hand, and then flung it. She winced as she threw her arms up, shielding himself from the attack.

"Ow!"

Kii looked over at Jaken, whose three fingered hands were now covering his head. His face was scrunched up like he was in excruciating pain. The sound of the pine cone hitting him was loud. Relief washed through her. She was glad she was not the target.

"I would have hoped not to hear such stupidity from my own attendant, Jaken."

"But why did you throw that at me?! This abuse is completely uncalled for! I don't understand why you would do something like-" Jaken squalled. Kii reached up and plugged her ears: Jaken was right beside her and loud, and after weeks of living with the two of them, she knew that when Jaken started whining, it never ended. This was such a frequent event that Kii secretly began to think that Sesshomaru actually enjoyed listening to Jaken's long tirades, simply because they were riddled with praises. Feeling a headache coming on, she tried to lean away from Jaken, but the fire was too hot and she was afraid her hair would catch on fire if she leaned in too close, so she only got a few centimetres away from the ranting imp. "-but good to you! All I suggested was that you go defeat the demon! You're such a great and powerful dog demon, and I merely wished to raise your esteem high-"

"Wait, he's a dog demon?!" Kii blurted out without thinking. She knew there were tree demons like that Boku-something guy, and dragons like Ah-Un who was off sleeping a distance away, and spider demons like the ones that chased her, and imp demons like Jaken, but she did not know that Sesshomaru had a type of demon too. She figured he was like a humanoid demon, like a devil or something.

"That's Lord Sesshomaru to you, Kii!" Jaken admonished.

"R-right," she said quietly. She peered over Sesshomaru, but he was looking up at the sky again, the dimming sky now a dark blue, completely ignoring both she and Jaken. Being a dog demon aside, apparently he was not going to call her out on her lie. She was so happy she could have kissed him – if not for the fact that he was pure evil, and that she did not have Stockholm syndrome, and that his bare chest looked amazing glistening with water... She mentally slapped herself. She turned her attention back to Jaken who was still glowing that weird brown color from the flickering fire. "Lord Sesshomaru is a dog demon?"

Jaken, despite being about the same height as her with the added leverage of the log, seemed to almost peer down at her with arrogance, "That's right! I haven't told you yet? Lord Sesshomaru is the first born son of Inu no Taisho, the great, fear inspiring general himself! Even after his death, tales of Inu no Taisho's feats are still whispered about by demons across the land. Of course, Lord Sesshomaru has long since stepped out of his fathers shadow, both in power and intelligence... although not yet in reputation. If I had my way, Lord Sesshomaru would go kill that demon on the moon an- OW~!" Kii's face screwed up emphatically as the pine cone that hit Jaken fell to the forest floor. Glancing over, Sesshomaru was still staring up the sky, nonchalantly.

"Lord Sesshomaru, why?! All I-"

Sesshomaru said nothing.

Ignoring the rambling Jaken, Kii thought about what she had just heard, and then pouted. "That makes no sense," she muttered.

"-understand why you keep throwing things at me when all I do is-" he paused and then lowered his hands from his head a second time, "What doesn't make sense?"

"Well..." she picked up the stick she was using to stroke the fire and began to run it along the soft dirt, doodling circles and flowers. She liked art: doodling helps her think, "it's just, dogs are cute and nice, and they usually like me..."

Jaken snorted.

"It's true!" Kii gasped, dropping the stick. "In fact, Sei had two, enormous, beautiful white dogs that would always sit down right beside my legs, cuddling them so~ close!"

Jaken folded his arms. "Liar!"

Kii pursed her lips, "I'm not lying! Sei always used to say that his dogs were never that cushy with anyone else, not even himself. It was only me that they liked!"

"What kind of dogs are you talking about?! Lord Sesshomaru is not born from a breed of domesticated canine! He is a pure and primal dog demon, through and through! Who is this Sei guy anyway!? I'd like to meet him and talk some sense into him!"

"Sei is my-!" Her breath caught. Kii felt her whole body begin to burn red from embarrassment. She could not answer that question. She could not tell him that Sei was an older guy that she met at a coffee shop, who was tall like model, and super cultured and smart. She could not tell him that Sei was the first guy to ever show interest in her, despite being in his twenties. And she definitely could not tell Jaken that she fell in love with this man over a year ago, only to find out that the guy had children around her age, which meant that he was not actually in his twenties but in his late thirties or forties and probably a pedophile.

She bit her tongue. "He's nobody."

"So then you're lying!"

Kii could not force the words out. She nodded slowly and brought her knees to her chest, burying her face in them. She wanted to disappear. God, Sei was the most attractive thing Kii had ever seen, even more so than the bare chested Sesshomaru, although she was sure that when Sesshomaru got older their looks would rival one another: Their height was the same. She shook her head in her knees. Man, she met Sei one time at a coffee shop while she was skipping school, and for months afterwards she would meet up with him and he, like a dream, would sit there and listen to her complain about all her problems and compliment her good points. They never really did anything sexual, but he would hold her hand on the table and smile at her, and she, fourteen at the time, would bat her eyelashes and think about how amazing it was that an older guy was interested in such a freak like her. It was incredible. And then, one day, this man who she assumed was twenty wanted her to meet his kids, because he was sure they would get along since they were in the same grade. Overwhelmed by it all: at the thought that he had kids, that he was older than she thought he was, that he was probably married and just sitting with her to be nice to her, or even worse, a pedophile: she just bolted out of the coffee shop.

He never found out where she lived and she never returned around the area. She had not seen him in over a year, and somehow, after her mom got pregnant and her school life disintegrated to hell, and now in this teleportation to another era thing, she had just forgotten about him. She equated her time with him to be a dream, and learning about his children to be a wake up call to reality. In all actuality, she just allowed herself to pretend it never happened. Like the friends she knew she had in elementary school but could remember nothing about. Maybe he was not that important to her after all? But the way she felt all warm and tingly inside, yet embarrassed and filled with this urge to both visit him and forget all about him again, she doubted that was the case.

"-would like you! Dog demons are powerful creatures, not tail wagging-"

She sighed into her knees and began to turn to face away from Jaken in an attempt to escape the rant and to warm up the side that had been pointed away from the fire. It hurt so bad to move: maybe tomorrow she will just stay on top of Ah-Un and rest. She needed a few hours to herself, to just think about everything. Why did she have to remember Sei now?

"-can't believe that you didn't even know that he was a-"

Kii's skin prickled. She felt like someone was watching her. Cautiously, she looked up at Lord Sesshomaru.

He was staring straight at her.

She blushed harder. Sorry for making him rant for longer! She tried to tell him with her eyes.

His cold, golden eyes said nothing back.

She faltered slightly.

He turned away again, and continued to look up at the sky – at the moon surrounded by countless stars in the darkening night.

She looked away and reached over to her right, grabbing a half-damp log. She threw it in the fire, and watched it crackle and boom, sending clouds of black smoke up into the sky.

"Why is this so awkward..." she mumbled to herself a minute later.

"-and that's why you shoul- what was that?" Jaken warbled from beside her.

She let out a heavy breath. "Nothing, Master Jaken. Just talking to myself."

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

She closed her eyes, let out another deep breath, and then turned her entire body around again, ignoring the pain, so that they were sitting face to face. She stared at the imp and all his brownish dry skin and bug like eyes, trying to hold in her frustration. She had brought this on herself. She should not have lied. "Y-yes, Master Jaken. Sorry Master Jaken. What was that that you were saying again?"

Jaken smiled with his beak like mouth. "Ah yes, as I was saying, Lord Sesshomaru is a powerful dog demon! When I first met him I was completely awestruck by his demonic aura! Of course, you can't sense demonic auras, but I'll have you know, Lord Sesshomaru's is a first class..."

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AN: Kii seems a lot more comfortable around Jaken, doesn't she? I figured she needed a friend. She's also a little less scared of Sesshomaru, what with their eye conversations and all. At least, less scared than she was before.

Oh, and I think I should clarify: Kii doesn't actually fully understand her connection to Sesshomaru. She knows that he feels pain when she does, but that's about it. She doesn't know that he is emotionally connected to her, or that when she gets hurt the injury actually happens to him as well. Nobody has taken the time to explain it to her yet (or rather, Sesshomaru hasn't taken the time to explain it to anyone who would be willing to share the information with her, aka, Jaken), so she's just going off what she understood from the witch doctor, Kurumi. I secretly hope she never finds out: I personally would be mortifying to find out that Sesshomaru knew he was making me all hot and bothered. I'd want to curl up and die, to be honest. But who knows, maybe Kii is into that. xD

But anyway, go Kii go! You can woo Sesshomaru over, I know you can! You just need to stop making him so angry: he's not actually that bad of a guy once you start to understand him. I'll let you guys in on a little secret because I'm not going to write in Sesshomaru's POV for a while: Every time Kii is happy, Sesshomaru feels happy as well. And as she gets more and more comfortable around Ah-Un and Jaken, the longer she will spend feeling happy. Ponder the implications of that for a while. :)

But now, new questions arise: Who is this mysterious Sei? How much longer will it take for Sesshomaru to break the curse, and end his physical connection to Kii (the emotional connection breaks over time, if you remember)? And if you remember from past chapters, why on earth are all the demons mindlessly attacking rural villages?! Why can't Ryuta, InuYasha's run away son, contact his family anymore? Why is he becoming Oda Nobuhide's scholar, and why is that such a dangerous job? And Akira (Miroku's son), Ko and Go (Koga's kids): where are they off travelling to next? What will they discover about all of these mysteries that are plaguing feudal Japan? Plus, there is still the matter of Miroku and Sango's other children: the sickly Sakura and the scared-to-death-of-demons Yui. We haven't spoken about them at all since their brief mention in chapter 15, but there has got to be some story behind that, right? How do they tie into the story?

Well... you're not going to find out for a while. :) This is probably going to be my last update until mid-December, and then after that, until the end of February. I'm moving, and about to go an experience military life, and I'd rather not be picked on by all the guys if they found out I'm writing fan fiction. Haha. I should have picked a different pen name, lol. I know I said before that I'd stockpile chapters, but I was too lazy: writing takes a lot out of me. Anywho, thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing you all again for a nice little Christmas update. I think in March or April I can start doing weekly updates again... maybe. :)