Next week, Sesshomaru moved on from simpler instincts and started to teach Kagome language of dog youkai. She was surprised to hear that all his growls and barks she heard before actually meant something more complicated than simple expression of emotions, and that they came to youkai not from their parents, but from their blood.
In some ways, learning dog language was easy – it didn't had much concepts in it, in comparison to human languages, but on the other hand it had completely different structure than Japanese. Even more, Kagome couldn't bark on it for five minutes without ending with sore throat, end even then Sesshomaru said that what she was trying to say was barely understandable. Humans, after all, just didn't have the same kind of throats as dogs. To make herself feel better, Kagome reminded herself, that dogs couldn't speak human as well.
Together with fencing lessons coupled with trials of transformation, studying of endless anatomy details, and whatever chore needed to be done to keep Sesshomaru's den comfortable and their things in good state, Kagome's days were always full. They flew buy so fast that if not for the elaborately painted calendar in Sesshomaru's possession, she wouldn't have ever noticed an approach of winter until the first snow. As it was, Kagome had enough sense in her to prepare warm clothes beforehand, even if it felt at times unnecessary because of the constant burn of blood under her skin. But together with the first day of winter came not only snow and cold that was threatening to freeze the waterfall near the den completely one day, but also a messenger.
He was a tall youkai, donned in armor and clothes of a soldier and bearing a crescent-shaped spear in one hand a scroll case in another. He was mounted on an armored beast that looked like a mix of a dragon and a horse. By luck, Kagome was the first one to notice him, because she when the youkai arrived just went out to gather some water for tea for her and Sesshomaru. The youkai noticed her too.
At first, he frowned and opened his mouth as if to say something degrading, but then sniffed the air and his brows rose in slight confusion. He opened his mouth again, then, but was interrupted.
"Who are you?" Kagome asked, brandishing empty teapot like a weapon. Her actual weapons were left in the den, but she didn't felt much power from this youkai and was reasonably sure that she would be able to defeat him with a teapot if necessary. Even his steed's energy felt somewhat more potent.
"I have brought the message for Sesshomaru-sama," the soldier said and sniffed again. Now if she looked more carefully, Kagome could see a brown tail that was poking out from behind him… The hair of a soldier, short and shiny was also more similar to fur than to actual hair. "Do you serve to him, priestess? Will you bring it to him?"
Kagome wondered why Sesshomaru himself didn't go out to meet this youkai already. She was sure that he knew that the youkai was nearby, which probably meant that Sesshomaru also knew who he was, and was probably expecting for things to happen like they did.
"Sure," she shrugged, reaching her hand out. "Is there anything else you need?"
"No," curtly replied the youkai, making his dragon-horse to move closer to Kagome so he could give her the scroll case without dismounting. From up close Kagome noticed, that while yellow and with a slit-like pupil, steed's eyes were big and horse-like, just like his muzzle. Without thinking about it, she brought her hand up to scratch the beast's chin and it rumbled contentedly until its rider yanked its reins.
"Don't let strangers just touch you like that! You are a battle steed, what if this woman was an enemy?" the soldier hissed when his dragon-horse roared in dissent. "Ugh, just go!"
With another roar the dragon and its rider flew up and away from Kagome. Shaking her head in slight disbelief, she filler her teapot and went back to the den to give the letter over. She wondered who could have sent it. Sesshomaru wasn't the most social youkai Kagome knew, and it was hard for her to imagine someone who might want to write to him for any reason. Which was, if you thought of it, kind of sad. With a shock, Kagome realized that before she became his pupil-slash-slave, Sesshomaru was wandering around completely alone.
When, a bit later, Sesshomaru read contents of the message, Kagome was looking at him with unhidden curiosity. She wasn't brazen enough to read over his shoulder, but she definitely wanted to know what the whole fuss was about. Sesshomaru's face didn't show anything besides a pinch of an annoyance, but that could have been because of Kagome's staring. After several heartbeats her stare turned pleading and she could almost hear Sesshomaru sigh.
"My mother expresses her wishes to see this Sesshomaru at Ten Winters Festival that is going to begin in six weeks in her castle," he retold Kagome contents of the letter. Her eyes flew wide from surprise.
"You have a mother?!" she cried out and immediately stuttered, "I mean, of course you do, Sesshomaru-sama, it's just that you never talked about her and your father is dead, so I thought that she-"
"Cease your rambling, priestess," Sesshomaru nailed Kagome to the ground with his look. She blushed and lowered her head. "In six weeks you will be able to confirm her good health with your own eyes."
This made Kagome look up in shock again, and so fast that she felt like she could break her neck if she will continue like this. "Are you going to take me with you, Sesshomaru-sama?" she asked in disbelief that was gradually changing into panic. "Am I going to meet your mother?"
Sesshomaru let out a growl. It was a sound, meaning of which Kagome learned even before she started to dabble in dog - basically, Sesshomaru just said to her to shut up. And so she did, if only for a short while. But it gave Sesshomaru enough time to put the letter away and task Kagome with reading a chapter on dog youkai's heart before evening, so she didn't had time to ask again that day.
The next day was a completely different thing.
"Can you tell me, at least, what is Ten Winters Festival is?" Kagome pleaded with Sesshomaru, blocking strikes of his wooden sword with her own. It was hard to ask questions while fighting, but she didn't have better opportunities yet. Sesshomaru rarely spent time near her when she wasn't learning from him or sleeping, preferring to tinker in his workshop or take long walks over his territory (he himself called it 'patrolling', but Kagome knew better).
"It is an event hosted by this Sesshomaru's mother every tenth winter," he replied, not slowing down in his attacks even a bit. Kagome read the thought behind the action as something like: 'I will answer some of your questions if you prove to me that you can talk and still fight effectively', and made an effort to concentrate on the fight a bit more. She knew that her time for questions will be over for sure if she will start to transform because of missed hits.
"It's called a festival," Kagome prompted, dodging a swing and launching a counterattack of her own. It was somewhat clumsy one, but she was glad to be able to even make it. "What kind of festivities will be there?"
"It is modeled after human festivals," Sesshomaru said casually, as if the spar was nothing to him. Though, there was no place for 'if' in there. "The whole event will last for about four weeks. There will be common celebrations and a tournament."
Hearing that, Kagome's mind without her control went on to imagine what kind of youkai festivities could be there. This inevitably made her lose concentration on the ongoing spar and miss a nasty hit to the stomach.
"Your left side is left unprotected," Sesshomaru remarked, changing topics on the fly. Kagome had no other choice left but to bear her pain and try not to get hit again to the same place. There was no time for questions left anymore – she barely had any to evade the hits!
Question by question, over the course of four weeks of anticipation Kagome learned more about the upcoming festival, though most of information that Sesshomaru went down to share with her was about the tournament attached to it. As she knew now, the festival itself held little to no interest to Sesshomaru in comparison. Because of that, while he bothered to tell her quite enough about the tournament, she only knew the basest basics of what was going to happen on the first part of the event – that it was modeled after celebrations of human nobles and that there will be many youkai present.
Kagome had much more information about the part with fighting. Unlike the festival, it would be open for anyone, and not just people who were invited by the hostess – there were even rare cases of humans participating, though none of them won. Only requirement was some show of power that would prove to judges that the participant wasn't a complete weakling. In the end, there were usually about from thirty to sixty partakers in the tournament. They battled in one on one fights until one of the opponents surrendered or was unable to continue. Each of the people, who managed to get to semi-finals, were allowed to choose one item from the reward pool, gathered by Sesshomaru's mother over the years with the contribution of other youkai. Kagome was also informed that the festivals were held for the last four centuries and that Sesshomaru had won the last eleven tournaments.
All of that information, though, gave her zero idea on whom this next new visitor of Sesshomaru's den may be. This time it was Sesshomaru who first went out to meet her, letting Kagome knew that she was either important or threatening enough to actually have his notice, but besides that she didn't even had any ideas about her breed thanks to the flawless human guise she had.
"Touran," Sesshomaru greeted colder than the snow he stood on. Kagome, who stood behind him and was watching curiously over the exchange, shivered involuntarily despite her winter clothes. "What you are doing here?"
The female scowled. Like Sesshomaru, she didn't seem at all affected by freezing temperatures around despite her light clothes. Together with her turquoise long hair, light blue eyes, aristocratically beautiful face and flawless pale skin she looked like some sort of winter spirit, not very much different from Sesshomaru himself. 'Could she also be a dog youkai? I wish I could just smell and say,' thought Kagome. She could feel chilling and powerful aura of the female, but it wasn't telling her much about her breed.
"You know why, Sesshomaru," Touran said, pointing finger at him. "I challenge you for my spear that you took from me after our last fight!"
"Do you wish for rematch?" Sesshomaru asked with some interest. "Do you have something to offer to this Sesshomaru as your own ante?"
Touran smirked at that and threw a glance at Kagome for the first time since the priestess appeared outside. "No, I know that you will win in a blood challenge," she acknowledged, "So what about challenge of leadership? And if you win, I will tell you where you will be able to get a sword worthy of yourself before the Winter Tournament."
Before Kagome could open her mouth and say something like "Wait, what?", Sesshomaru already agreed, leaving her confused and suspicious. She didn't know what the challenge of leadership was about, but she was suspecting that it was, for some reason, involved her – and she didn't liked it one bit.
"Then I will go and fetch my siblings," Touran said and vanished almost faster than the eye can see. With that, Kagome turned to Sesshomaru with expectant look.
"So what did you sign me in?" she asked, crossing her hands on her chest.
"The challenge of leadership is a battle between chosen servants of opposing sides. You shall fight against Touran's champion," Sesshomaru said without showing in any way that he was intimidated. "You will be in advantage, because while Touran doesn't know your abilities, this Sesshomaru knows well what her strongest soldiers can do."
"Just great!" Kagome exclaimed accepting her fate with a healthy dose of anger. Being unable to just shout off Sesshomaru's ear, she started to fume silently.
"There are three people from which Touran might choose, all of them – wildcats like her, and equal in power. Shuran is notable for his physical strength and ability to control lightning. Karan is nimble and can summon flames. Shunran is able to conjure illusions and attack with wind. All of them share a weakness over the element that is stronger than the one they wield," Sesshomaru coached. Kagome had minuscule amount of gratitude to him for that. It was all about winning a contest anyway for this jerk.
Kagome remembered the diagram from the old book on the structure of the universe. Earth, water, fire, wind and void together created everything that existed in it. That didn't said her anything about what she could do against any of those youkai besides her basics. That also didn't explain which element was strongest against which, though Kagome could guess from the names of the trio. They surely had a common theme between them and Touran.
"But I can't fight with any element besides my reiki anyway!" Kagome complained. "What good this weakness is going to get me anyway?"
"It is most prudent to know strong and weak sides of your opponent whether you think yourself able to exploit them or not. Now, get your sword," Sesshomaru replied to that. Instantly remembering that she, indeed, left her sword at the den, Kagome run away behind the still moving waterfall to fetch it.
When Kagome returned with her weapon, Touran was there already. Behind her the priestess could see a bulky and tall man in green haori, fiery red-haired and lean young woman and a green-eyed girl with flowers in her hair. Kagome guessed that redhead was probably Shuran, since her hair was similar in color to autumn leaves, and the man was Karan, since he was clad in dark green, like summer grass. That left the girl to be Shunran.
"I, Touran of the wildcats, call you, Sesshomaru of the dogs, to the challenge of leadership for the Rime Spear that you hold in your possession!" Touran declared proudly, stepping forward.
"This Sesshomaru accepts the challenge and chooses Kagome to represent him," he said in similar tone and looked at the priestess. "Step forth."
'So he does remember my name?' Kagome thought in shock, making two steps towards the Touran. Fresh snow crunched under her boots and she was glad that snowfall ended this morning. It would not be easy to fight in snow as it was. It was hard to say where shore ended and partially frozen lake started, and Kagome didn't want to step on thin ice.
"I choose Shunran to represent me," Touran waved her hand at the youngest-looking youkai with her and she stepped forward. "And if I lose this challenge, I will tell Sesshomaru where to find a great sword."
Something – maybe the wording of a challenge or smug smiles of youkai involved – told Kagome that even if she wins the battle now, there was low chance of Sesshomaru being really happy with whatever Touran was going to tell him. She threw a glance at her teacher, trying to see if he himself understood it, but his face wasn't showing anything.
Touran stomped her leg on the snow, and a long wall of icicles protruded from the ground, circling Kagome and Shunran on the improvised arena. The pieces of ice weren't standing up higher than Kagome's waist, but looked quite sharp.
"The first one to yield, leave the circle or became unable to fight loses," declared the woman. Sesshomaru agreed with a curt nod. "Then the battle begins… now!"
Kagome tensed with her hand on the handle of sheathed Tsunohiyoru, watching her future opponent. The girl, who was standing ten steps apart from her on the other side of the ice circle, wasn't bearing any obvious weapons with her besides claws and fangs. She also didn't seem to be in hurry to attack first. 'At least this arena is too small for a youkai in his true form,' Kagome though, coiling her aura in preparation for a quick strike. 'Though I would have felt better if this was an archery contest.'
"Fu-fu-fu, do you think your holy power and this sword on your hip will be enough against me?" Shunran said with an arrogant smile and waved her long sleeves. Kagome could feel waves of youki weaving into some sort of spell.
"Should be!" replied Kagome, unsheathing Tsunohiyoru and pointing it at Shunran in the same movement. The furious pink of reiki channeled into it shined bright, moving from the blade towards Shunran in a wide beam that the youkai had zero chance to dodge. This was what Kagome was trained for as a priestess and as a swordsman. The fruit of her efforts – one of them, anyway. This was one of the things she wished she could use on Sesshomaru in their spars...
Shunran screamed out in pain, when the attack hit her, but Kagome could feel that the girl was alive. This was great – she didn't want to kill her, just to knock out or throw out of the arena. When clouds of snow that were lifted up from the attack settled down again, Kagome could see Shunran on her knees outside of the partially broken ice circle. She was looking around in confusion before she groaned and pressed her hand to her stomach.
"You lost, Touran," Sesshomaru said to a scowling blue-haired woman, while Karan and Shuran helped Shunran up and started to ask about how she was feeling.
"That reiki… How a priestess of such power became a servant of someone like you, Sesshomaru?" Touran asked in angry disbelief.
"This is irrelevant. Your information, Touran," Sesshomaru said with impatience in his tone. Kagome decided to ignore their exchange for now and check on the Shunran.
"Do you need first aid?" she asked, coming closer to the youkai trio. They looked at her with suspicion, but eventually redhead that Kagome identified as Shuran, replied:
"She will be fine. She just needs rest, right?" she looked at Shunran questioningly.
"Yes, you didn't blast me that hard, Kagome-san," the girl nodded, still keeping her sleeves around her body. Kagome could see that her clothes were burned behind them. She learned from Sesshomaru, that youkai clothes were usually made from youkai materials that were able to transform together with their owners and even regenerate; but contrary to human-made materials, they also were destroyed by holy attacks.
"Let me lend you some clothes, then," Kagome offered. Shunran nodded with some trepidation, and then it was set.
One grudgingly given permission from Sesshomaru later, Kagome was helping Shunran change into one of her spare yukatas, also using the opportunity to check on the girl's wounds. Despite them wanting to, Shuran and Karan weren't given permission to go inside the den, so the two girls had some privacy, even if Shunran seemed to be very nervous to be in such environment.
When Shunran took off her kimono to get in borrowed yukata, Kagome could easily see that not only it was burned and torn, it was also splattered with blood.
"Shunran-chan, you are wounded," Kagome noticed with worry, quickly moving to grab her medical kit. It was a useful thing to have on hand when training. "Let me see, please."
"It's just some scratches! They will heal tomorrow!" Shunran protested. Kagome didn't want to hear any of that, though. There was something in youkai girl that reminded her of Haruko; and besides that, she felt a bit guilty for dealing those wounds in the first place. The reason for it seemed to be quite unimportant in her eyes.
"Not the wounds from reiki! And burns are easily infected," Kagome countered, moving to try and just overpower youkai if she refuses to see reason. Thankfully, after this Shunran pouted, but let Kagome do whatever she wanted.
Pulling Shunran's yukata away, Kagome could see not only burns and bruises from her attack, but also long scratches left by sharp icicles on the youkai's back. All of those needed to be cleaned out and bandaged, and when Kagome was done with that, most of Shunran's torso was covered in cloth.
"Thank you," she said sadly. "I can't believe I had not only lost so easily, but also got aid from the person who defeated me. I am so worthless! I am just no help for Touran-sama at all!"
"Don't blame yourself, Shunran-chan," Kagome shook her head and smiled encouragingly. "This is just one loss. There sure will be wins in the future!"
"And now you are even trying to lift my spirits!" Shunran pouted harder with a look of wounded pride in her eyes. "Tell me, at least, that I can repay you for clothes somehow!"
"Well," Kagome inclined her head in though. "Can you tell me what is this feud between Touran and Sesshomaru-sama about?"
"This is no secret," Shunran shrugged. "About five decades ago we and Touran-sama tried to make Sesshomaru-sama to give up this territory and challenged him for it. But he won and took her Rime Spear as a reward. Since then we found another piece of land for ourselves, but Touran still wants her weapon back."
"Why did she want this territory in the first place? I mean, surely there are less protected places, aren't there?" Kagome asked.
"But this one is really nice!" Shunran explained complainingly. "The game is always plentiful in this forest, and this cave," she waved around in encompassing gesture. "Is big and protected by waterfall from smell and sight. There are also big human city not too near and not too close enough, and none of the neighbors are of problematic sort. All places like this one are already owned by powerful beings."
Kagome nodded in understanding. Well, Touran risked and lost her weapon, and, knowing Sesshomaru, she wasn't having it back anytime soon, if ever.
"Thank you for explaining," the priestess said with a slight smile. "Let's go now, I think Touran must be waiting for you already."
When Shunran and Kagome got outside, Touran and Sesshomaru, indeed, already finished talking and the atmosphere around the lake was quite tense. Mostly because of the dark look on Sesshomaru's face.
"Shunran, we are leaving now," Touran commanded as soon as the girl stepped outside. "Goodbye, Sesshomaru!"
"Goodbye, Kagome-san!" Shunran added with a wave, running after her mistress. "See you again on the Winter Festival!"
Sesshomaru just scowled darker. Kagome stepped near him and looked up to his face questioningly.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked, as if she wasn't heavily suspecting what exactly was wrong.
"Not yet," Sesshomaru seemingly relaxed a bit. "This Sesshomaru will leave for two days. You may spend them as you wish. This is your reward."
"Thank you, Sesshomaru-sama!" Kagome almost jumped from excitement. Two whole free days! Completely alone! No orders, no studying, and no chores besides most necessary ones – it was going to be great.
Two days or blessed boredom Kagome was shocked to see Sesshomaru entering the den with the one of the strangest weapons she had ever seen in her life.
"Hello," she said, stupefied. "Is this the sword that Touran talked about? "
Sesshomaru nodded, moving past her towards his weaponry. The giant weapon, too wide for a sword, with a handle too long, and just generally too big for a human to wield, was lying on his shoulder and threatening to scrap on corridors' roofs. She could feel evil energies inside of the sword, hidden for now, like a guard dog in its doghouse.
"This isn't a sword, Sesshomaru-sama! This is a monstrosity!" Kagome cried out, following behind him. "Is it, at least, any good? Where did you get it? I guess Touran didn't lied about a great sword… This one is just gigantic!"
"This sword is named Banryu. It belonged to a dead mercenary who washed it in blood of a thousand humans and thousand youkai," Sesshomaru explained. "This Sesshomaru took it from the daimyo that captured and executed him several years ago."
"I feel the malice inside of it," Kagome noted in agreement. "And I guess you aren't going to use it?"
"No," the youkai stated, walking inside of his weaponry. Kagome moved closer, helping him to clean some space to fit the monstrosity of the new sword. 'And another weapon is going to be gathering dust in Sesshomaru's collection. I think that this is for the best. Fewer weapons, especially ones so evil, mean less bloodshed.'