She found herself hurrying behind the retreating from of Sesshomaru and his...friend? She wasn't exactly too sure who the gold Inu was, but he seemed important. His seating to exactly Sesshomaru's left was a dead giveaway, but what exactly was the relation. He most likely was a soldier in the Western army, judging by the black armour he wore similar to Seshomaru's- minus the spikes. His blonde hair was tied into a neat, sizable bun to the middle of his head, showing off his long elegant neck Thayer down to the Most likely ripped body hidden underneath his yellow-leaves-on-black haori. Curiously his hair only came from the middle of his head in a surprisingly modern Mohawk style with rather low sides for the time period.
Whoever he was to Sesshomaru, he was taking him away quickly. Stupid tall demons and there long strides. He was keeping her from sequestering the demon Lord and yelling at him for throwing her squarely into the lions den, where only a compassionate Kami may take pity on her and save her. It's not that she wasn't proud to be given such an upstanding position, it was that she just arrived and seemed to be on good terms with the Lord before being given the position. Most people would not understand that it was through a past earn merit she gained the position (no matter how unknowing she was to demon traditions at the time) and not through some perceived nepotism.
Growing tired of the pace, she sent a tendril of her power to poke him. Kamidamnit she would get his attention even if she had to yell or throw her boot at him or something drastic. She saw the brilliant dark purple hue of her power reach out and give Sesshomaru a soft push. It was barely enough to halt his stride, but enough to draw his attention. But instead of stopping, he sped up. It was like... Sesshomaru was actively running away from her
"Son of a-"
"Kagome" was the gentle voice of Toga-sama from behind her.
She ducked her head in shame. Slowly she turned to face him.
"Come pup, before the sorting begins you need to be there early and prepare. The hallway is stifling with your annoyance at my eldest."
With a fatherly arm, he guided her to the way from which she came. She tried to turn around to see him and glare at him. However, Toga-sama's grip didn't allow for even that action. She couldn't get away from her new teacher, in a way that wouldn't cause a scene, that is. Her new position didn't allow for such uncalled violence. Which may have also been a reason for his decision. She couldn't retaliate how she would want to. But after all, she was a shinobi trained in the art of seduction. Again taking her power, she stretched it out to him. It slithered up his back, down his chest in feathery touches, back up his demonic marks and caressed his ears. It was soft touches that they often couldn't consciously feel but did it's job in exciting. She let it continue for 5 seconds, before snapping it back to herself as she turned around the corner. She would find out later how it affected him.
"Now, Kagome, I will be close by. During the introduction part of the sorting I would be teaching you on the spot. I've decided that I won't teach you how to control your emotions but I will teach you to use your innate ability as a skill. However, the first thing you must learn, don't ever lock away your emotions"
Toga-sama's face became grave as he said that. His eyes clouded over and became distant. Was he thinking of-
"But that wouldn't happen to you.-" his face brightened back up like nothing ever darkened it- " Chin up, little one. What could go wrong?"
...888...
Now, you would think that something would go wrong, but it didn't. Kagome was given her first lesson sorting through the "noise". It was explained to her that basically she was a walking lie detector. Emotions and auras were just information. Deeply encoded information, but information nonetheless. And it was a language that she could clearly decode with little error. However, "noise" interfered with translation and interpretation.
Noise, was Toga-sama's way of talking about barriers to understanding the "language". Noise could be distractions, other people's emotions that doesn't necessarily try to read and most importantly, her target's other emotions. The last one was in her opinion the hardest. Her training with Natsu made her learn how to ignore distractions and read certain physical cues so zoning in on her target was a breeze. But sitting through a myriad of emotions from a s single one to find the important one? It was worse than finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.
So that's how she spent the mingling part of the sorting. Toga-sama would pick out her target and she had to read them correctly. And how would he know if it was correct? It was because he was a dog. Canines were good at sniffing out complex emotions; the dogs were the best at this, no matter how diluted the blood was. Meaning that Inuyasha should have been able to talent discern that she had liked him...
But now was not the time for such depressing thoughts. Now she had to read a rather bland looking wolf girl with only a small amount of her aura. Toga-sama believed that it would be easier for her to learn in small quantities and then larger quantities as time went on than to start off big. So presently, she reached out prodding silently at the wolf's emotional. Watching and differentiating between emotions but not interfering.
"What can you tell?"
"Well, she's quite bored. And she's agitated. Maybe she's looking or waiting for something to happen. "
Her teacher nodded approvingly. He then informed her that she had missed an underlying emotion: sadness.
"We'll stop, for now, little one. After you finish sorting, the rest of the day will be free, more or less. Then we would have that audience with Lord Harou about the temporary disappearance of his son, with Sesshomaru as part of the audience, of course. Then you'd get to say what unpleasantness you wanted to say to my son earlier wand couldn't."
She smiled sheepishly as she moved away from him to the dais. Her eyes unwittingly tracked the movements of the demon Lord amongst the masses. It was generous to call it movements as he never moved from the spot where he stood. Youkai made their way to him for whatever short replies he daned to give.
Miroku was also making his way to the dais. He didn't seem nervous in the least bit. She deduced it to him working in the demon court for an extended time.
The dais where not too long they had eaten breakfast, had turned into a study desk for two. Papers upon papers were stacked on both sides of the low desk. However there was one question she needed to ask as they sat on the red cushions.
"How do we sort?"
He smiled good naturedly.
"Name, preference, fetishes and kinks anyone they already are looking at"
"Oh, this is easier than I thought."
"It is. The hard part is grouping people based on their answers, playing match maker and then being the counselor. It's even harder when they lie."
She thought on what he said. They would most definitely have liars, mostly because they were humans and might believe they could get away with it and trick their way into a group not suited for them. Also, there were at least 170 would be suitors they had to go through. But what if...
"I think I have a way to stop them from lying and streamlined the process?"
Miroku gave her a conspiratry look in his purple eyes.
"What do I have to do?"
She picked up a brush, dipping it in ink.
"Give me an ofuda and hold up a barrier around us-" on receiving it she began to precisely write kanji before sticking it to the ground, resulting in a larger barrier- "once they set foot inside, they'll tell us the truth and only the truth we want to hear, then leave. They won't remember their honesty and we can move faster"
Miroku looked highly impressed at her ofuda work, praising her on it. He then pulled out his own brush made of some demonic tree and animal.
"This is something I earned from Lady Tsukiko. It is scribe brush and it would take down what they said with precision. All we have to do is ask the questions."
It was now Kagome's turn to be impressed. However it was short lived as a ringing of a gong signified the sorting part of the sorting."
...888...
Kagome sat with an exasperated look on her face as the demons filed out. They had just gone through 124 participants within the last half hour. That was okay, within the week, people would have to come to them. And along the way, they would return to make changes and to formally put in suits. It was a tonne of work, but that wasn't why she was exasperated.
Even with her essentially drugging them to only tell what was needed, their list was long filled with extremely detailed descriptions. Some of the things start token of... needed a simpler word than depraved to be understood. It was just plain nasty. Yet Natsu thought her not to kink shame, but it was so hard when males were talking about peeing in eyes and females were talking about biting -it- off. Fun fact about male demon genitalia: according to wear it is removed, it would regenerate within two days. Fun.
She barely had chance to breathe before she was ushered away from Miroku.
"I thought the audience is later? Why are we going now?"
"Prince Natsu insisted it be done before, to give you the rest of the time to properly do your job"
She said nothing after that. She found herself going through the doors she had walked out of a few hours ago. Inside stood Lord Harou, Natsu, Fubuki, Sesshomaru and the mysterious Eiji. They were all awaiting her presence like she was some side of act they were all already bored with.
'Kagome, stand down' was Natsu's voice in her head.
'I won't,' she replied simply.
'Kagome please! Don't do this"
"Oh shut up Natsu!" She said aloud before turning on his sire.
"You! I have already told why your son was with me and I will not be repeating it. It has happened and you need to get over yourself. Him training me was part of our deal on what his wish on the jewel would be. Understand this, Natsu has told me all about your "situation" and I'm going to help- whether you like it or not. Don't you dare cut me off. As a student of your heir my allegiance as a shinobi is to you, however I am also beholden to the West. So shut up and let me fulfil my Kami-damn destiny to find what you lost and leave me alone. If in your infinite wisdom you could still hate me, even when I'm doing this, then ignore my existence. Now if you would excuse me, I have sorting to do." She spun on her heel and made her way to the door before spinning back, giving the Western demon Lord her deadliest glare.
"I will come back to you, Sesshy" and ducked through the door disappearing at once.
A tick formed on Sesshomaru's brow.
"S-"
"Don't" he said to his general. "Are you satisfied, Lord Harou?"
The man in question looked ashen. He acted as if he had a seen a ghost. A moment of silence passed in the room. When he chose to speak, he ignored Sesshomaru's question, turning to an equally ashen Toga.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" Toga responded with a mute nod "She looked just like my koiishi when she got angry. Aimikori"
...888...
Is everyone keeping healthy and sane? I hope so, this Corona Virus is very serious, so stay inside as possible.
I'm going to try and get a next chapter up by next week. Now I have a serious question, do you think the story is dragging? Should I speed up certain events or is my pacing well. Really member the story takes place within a month-ish and might be a long story if I can continue at my current pace.
