As soon as Kagome entered her lodge, she was greeted not only by Touran (whom she expected to see), but also by an unfamiliar youkai in robes of a servant, who passed an invitation from Tsume to visit her lodge. Of course, Kagome couldn't refuse, even if she was almost sure that a person who really wanted to speak with her now was not Tsume, but Sesshomaru. All that Kagome had time to do before leaving her wildcat friend was to pass wishes of good luck for her upcoming match.
Each step through packed passages between spectators' places added another drop into the chalice of Kagome's dreadful anticipation. If Sesshomaru was taking time of his day to call for her now, did that meant that his anger rose too high for it to wait until later? He didn't show any desire to keep her close during the tournament until that moment, and half of the matches had already passed! It was past noon now.
When Kagome entered the luxurious lodge, Tsume and Sesshomaru sat in the middle of it, watching with interest the match on the arena. Both youkai sat straight, like two heavenly spirits that were sent by gods to oversee mortals and send back words of their doings. But Kagome knew perfectly well, that if those two came somewhere, it was probably not Heaven, but Hell. Just as one of the fighting youkai finally finished her opponent with a devastating blow that cleaved him in half and sent the crowds into frenzy, marking the second death of the tournament, Tsume grinned and turned to Kagome.
"Hello, girl," she gestured with her hand towards a sitting place to the free side of her, starting to babble happily. "This Tsume was most overjoyed to see you in the tournament! This one honestly wished to call you to her lodge from the very start of it, but how could she tear you apart from your friends just like that? That would've been most cruel," she shook her head in mock sadness. "But when this one's dearest son expressed his wish to say a word to you, girl, how could his mother refuse, when her soul so longed to talk with you again?"
"Mother, you don't have a soul," Sesshomaru remarked in cold tone, just as Kagome hesitantly sat on adjourned with pillows seat near his mother. "You sold it for a second tongue. Will you ever cease your idle prattle?"
Kagome stared at him like Sesshomaru just grew a second head. While the words could have been easily interpreted as an insult, they looked like a joke (as long as you knew Sesshomaru's face well enough to tell that there was no negativity written in his features), sounded like a joke (if you knew how to listen), and Tsume laughed at them, like they were a joke (which, Kagome thought a moment later, wasn't that much of an indicator). 'So… Did Sesshomaru-sama just made a joke?' If yes, then this was a first.
"Sesshomaru-kun, how could you be so cruel to your dear mother?" Tsume asked mockingly. "But this one will blame your impatience to speak with the girl for that. And the lover-boy's most hilarious performance, of course! Ah, it's still winter, but pheromones already fill the air…" she sighed dreamily, but her lips were stretched in a smirk. Sesshomaru snorted.
"The wolf was of no significance, mother, even if he was showing incredible stupidity. Priestess," Sesshomaru suddenly turned his heavy stare to her, and Kagome instantly remembered all the fears from which she was distracted. "Your fights until now were most unsatisfactory. This Sesshomaru does not wish to see even one more match that ends with any surrender but most forced one, from your or your opponent."
"Hey, they are my opponents! How can I tell them not to surrender? I can't control their actions!" Kagome protested, sighing with relief on the inside. If Sesshomaru was just peeved about that, then she was still fine.
"Then try," was the only words Sesshomaru said in reply, before turning back to the new match that was starting on the arena. For a moment Kagome just sat with indignantly puffed cheeks, as she contemplated what exactly she was thinking about commands like that one, before its dire implications caught up with her.
'Wait a moment, that means that I won't be able to surrender for Touran or Tsunohiyoru if we meet in fight, or accept a surrender from them! And if I do anyway, what will Sesshomaru do?' Kagome looked at him from the corner of her eye, but cold figure of the dog youkai didn't gave her much hints into what he was thinking about, so she moved her thoughts towards her new friends.
Touran already expressed her wish to fight with Kagome in all earnest if they come up to it, so, the priestess guessed, it will be fine to fight with her. Tsunohiyoru, though… Well, the only place where Kagome could meet with him was at semi-finals, and it was quite improbably that not just one, but both of them will reach them.
"Well, now that this one's son is done with his lectures, let us all enjoy the show together!" Tsume exclaimed as soon as it became clear that Sesshomaru wasn't going to say anything else, and launched into an animated monologue. "Seeing as your friends, girl, had you for a half of the matches, this Tsume thinks that it's only fair that you spend the rest of them in her company, don't you agree? Now that the weakest combatants are already out, most interesting fights will began! Oh, this one is so excited! She hopes that Hiten will be a good competition for her son this year – he was showing such great potential last few times this Tsume saw him enter the tournament."
"His powers are more suitable for large-scale battles, not for a competition like this one," Sesshomaru commented. "But he has a spirit of a warrior."
Kagome started to realize that her assumptions over the cold relationship between Sesshomaru and his mother were probably incorrect. He rarely ever spoke that much without probing, or that lightly, with Kagome for as long as she knew him (and this without even mentioning the joke from earlier). And now, as the conversation continued in the similar manner, with Tsume chirping lively about this fight and that, and about her favorite participants so far, and Sesshomaru throwing a sentence in from time to time, Kagome realized how little she still knew about her teacher.
That discovery didn't stopped Kagome from listening in the conversation, or launching her own questions at always ready to answer dog lady. Tsume's insight over her future opponents was the most useful giving her experience, and Kagome wasn't going to pass that up, nor was she going to ignore all the delicious food that was lying around for lodge's occupants to indulge in during the tournament.
Kagome's third match was long, hard, exhausting and just plain horrible. The spider youkai who was her opponent quickly left her two previous adversaries in neat cocoons, and did her best to do the same thing with Kagome. And when the priestess burned cobwebs with her reiki, the giant spider moved in melee to just try and skewer her.
Thanks to Tsume's insight, Kagome knew both about the poison that the spider could conjure not just with her mandibles, but with her youki as well, and about hard chitin shell that deflected most weapons with ease. As practice showed, weak flares of reiki didn't leave a trace on it, stronger ones only irritated the youkai, and Kagome's best attacks (i.e. stabs with heavily charged Tsunohiyoru that were more or less equivalent in power with her purifying arrow shots) at best left small holes in the thick shell.
In turn, the spider was physically strong enough to make Kagome's barriers ripple a little and slowly suck on the priestess' reiki, filled the whole arena with a cloud of poisonous miasma that also required reiki to constantly purify it, and was seemingly inexhaustible. As Kagome run and tumbled around her in hopes to hit some weak point, or at least deal enough small wounds for her to finally succumb to their sheer amount, the spider was making her best to tire her out.
And last but not least, she was a giant, damn it, spider! Kagome was not going to tell anyone anything about the form they preferred to walk around in, but she was just gross with her shiny black chitin, dripping with poison mandibles, eight blood-red eyes and strange hairs around her abdomen. Gross and terrifying! At least she couldn't fly.
In the end, Kagome managed to land a lucky hit at one of spider's joints, cutting off the whole leg, which left the youkai shaken for long enough that Kagome could come closer and put a thick stack of binding ofudas on her forehead, to the loud cheers of the audience. The spider was still twitching weakly when the judge announced Kagome's victory, but either he considered her incapacitated anyway, or some of the youkai's weird rattling was a surrender. At this point, Kagome couldn't bring herself care not just about that, but even about a leg she cut off. 'She still has seven of them. She will live.'
Either way, while Kagome won, she dreaded her next fight, and nothing felt more enticing to her now than soft pillows of Tsume's lodge (and right now she wasn't even concerned about its inhabitants anymore). The woman whom Touran was going to fight now was quite ferocious, and no matter who of them won, the priestess' next match wasn't going to be easier than this one. Thankfully, even if Kagome didn't had as much time to rest as she'd liked to, she still had some of it. And Tsume was the most gracious host, ordering servants to refill her cup with rejuvenating tea and making sure that the priestess didn't need anything.
"You fought most courageously in that match, girl!" Tsume commented with approval as Kagome sipped on her drink, almost moaning in bliss. The tea blend was amazing, and judging by soft traces of youki in it, not made from human herbs. "This one admits that she was very curious about how you will deal with an opponent like this one, which was why the spider was put against you. Any other youkai, besides elementals, that is, would've assumed their true form to make their opponent to lose the size advantage, but even without that ability you did remarkably great!"
Kagome sighed. Oh yes, she knew on whom to put blame with anything concerning the tournament grid – the one who made it, which meant Tsume. She couldn't really fault her for the match ups, though – it wouldn't be good for anyone if Tsume showed any favoritism.
"Indeed. Given your lack of experience with swords, you couldn't have done more," Sesshomaru agreed with a slight nod. Kagome felt warm inside under his praise, even if it seemed to be small. It wasn't that easily given. She couldn't stop herself from smiling.
"And why elementals wouldn't have transformed?" Kagome asked Tsume curiously.
"Hm, and impromptu lesson for you, girl? Why not! Servants will need some time to clear the stage from leftover poison before the next fight!" the dog lady replied, rising her eyes to the sky. "The elemental youkai are not like animal ones. Many of them are born not from parents, but from the nature itself. Those elementals prowl around the place of their birth until they meet some creature whose looks they like well enough and then copy their form – such is a basest instinct of their young. This form becomes the true one for an elemental, and those of them for whom it's a human one, rarely bother to learn another. As for those elementals that are born from parents, they inherit their looks from them. And with how many humans around, is it so surprising that most of elementals these days imitate them?"
After that Tsume launched into a tale that her great grandmother told her when she was still young, about times when grass was greener, trees were taller, sun shone brighter, humans were just particularly smart bald monkeys and you could have met elementals in all kinds of shapes. Sesshomaru seemed to tune it all out, while Kagome listened with avid curiosity, as she was reminded again that Sesshomaru was centuries old and his mother, of course, was even older. It's only ended when a bang of a gong announced a beginning of Touran's match against a bird youkai Abi (whom haughtily introduced herself as princess Abi despite not being an actual princess), and everyone's attention was drawn to the arena.
Two beautiful youkai females stood on its sand, ready for battle. They seemed to be complete opposites of each other: where one was wearing blue colors, another was clad in reds; where one held spear in her hands, another didn't possess any sort of weapon besides her claws and fangs; where one held powers over ice, another commanded fires. But both held similar arrogance in their postures and faces as they exchanged greetings and some words that Kagome didn't heard.
Even Tsume kept silent, as the fighters began first steps of their deadly dance. Kagome watched, transfixed, how Abi perfectly countered Touran's ice attacks with her flames and sent her own back. They seemed to perfectly balance each other, and both possessed a predator's grace, though where Touran moved like flowing water, Abi's motions held more of fierce and explosive quality. And both often stopped to exchange more words that Kagome couldn't hear. She was going to ask Tsume what did they say, but help came from unexpected side.
"They just exchange insults in typical female fashion," Sesshomaru said just as Kagome opened her mouth for question. "Do not concern yourself."
"Ah-ah-ah, Sesshomaru-kun," while Tsume didn't turned away from the show on the arena, she still shook her head disapprovingly. "In a fight for dominance between two women, supremacy of wits is just as important as supremacy of fists! But these two, for now, are even on both accounts. And what a wonderful spectacle they show us! This Tsume shall pit them against each other on the next tournament as well for sure."
Next exchange of words between the two fighters was more heated, and Tsume snickered in her sleeve over something that was spoken. Now Kagome was curious.
"What did they said?" she asked.
"Oh this was a good one! The wildcat said: 'The only place where you will ever have success is a pot of chicken soup'," Tsume said, to add with over-exaggerated embarrassment, "The bird's answer was too crude for this one to repeat it, though. That would've been most unbecoming..."
"And yet, you will say it anyway," Sesshomaru said with a hint of despair in his voice.
"But of course, Sesshomaru-kun!" Tsume smiled brilliantly. The expression caught with a corner of her eye made Kagome turn from a fight to look at it fully. Tsume always looked unearthly beautiful, but this smile made her look as if Amaterasu herself stepped down from her divine palace for a moment. Kagome couldn't help but try to imagine a smile like this on Sesshomaru's face, but that just seemed way too strange and unnatural. "This isn't a social dinner, after all, and how could this Tsume not to share words that amused her so much? So, girl, the bird said: 'And nobody will ever sleep with you in fear of their manhoods freezing off'! How crude, but how entertaining!"
Kagome couldn't help but express her agreement, even if she was blushing at same the time. The fight continued with more and more fervor as placed insults slowly reached their goal to anger and humiliate the opponents. Tsume continued to repeat her favorite jibes for Kagome, even the dirtiest ones.
Finally, something that Touran said reached the end of Abi's self-control and bird-woman's eyes turned red from rage. With a loud scream of rage she soared high up on a cloud of flames, with Touran immediately following after, conjuring an ice slope right under her feet as she run higher into the air.
"'What, you don't have a comeback? Did you already use everything your mommy made for you?'," Tsume repeated for weaker human ears. "It seems that the wildcat was the wittiest one in the end. Now, will she be also the strongest?.."
"The real fight finally begins," Sesshomaru said. He didn't seem to find the exchange of barbs that interesting; knowing him, Kagome though that he probably believed it to be foolish.
Just as the dog youkai announced, both opponents stopped talking and started to fight in their earnest. In the air, Abi had a noticeable advantage in maneuverability, but where her strikes were blind from her flaming rage, Touran kept a cool head on her shoulders. The wildcat continued to dodge and block with a seeming ease, which made Abi only more furious with each hit. At some point her frustrations became so overwhelming, that the bird woman just plain charged straight at Touran, as if going to tear her apart with her bare hands that started to transform into bird talons as she flew. Kagome gasped, not able to contain her tension over the resulting clash when Touran didn't even tried to dodge, instead choosing to meet her adversary head-on.
Getting close to Touran was, though, a horrible mistake for the bird-woman – her burning talons weren't good enough to oppose the Rime Spear. One touch was all that Touran needed to start encasing Abi in ice, dousing her flames. When the bird youkai tried to fly away, it was already too late for her, and in the next moment she dropped to the ground as a part of a great slab of ice, and Touran raised her spear in a salute to a loudly cheering audience.
"What a performance!" Tsume let out excitedly. "This Tsume just can't wait for your match with the wildcat, girl!"
Kagome, who was cheering together with the crowd over her friend's victory, froze with Touran's name on her lips, before slowly lowering back on her seat. She didn't thought about that before, but indeed – since Touran won now, her next match will be with Kagome, and after what the wildcat showed now, the priestess felt doomed to end in another slab of ice. And that without even mentioning Kagome's general unwillingness to hurt people that she called her friends! Except for Sesshomaru, but the jerk deserved every hit she managed to land on him. And it was not like they were really friends anyway – at least Sesshomaru would surely never admit anything that was even remotely close.
"Are you sure I can't just yield, Sesshomaru-sama?" Kagome looked at him with pleading eyes. "Please, I'm so tired already, she will just win anyway!"
Sesshomaru stared at her coldly from his height for a while in response. It was a kind of look that people usually gave to especially gross and disgusting things, and Kagome felt small and weak under it. She really wished to take her words back.
"Sorry, Sesshomaru-sama," she shook her head, putting a smile on her face. "I understand. 'One who loses all hope before the battle had already lost', right?"
Kagome concluded that this placated Sesshomaru a little, as his glare softened almost unnoticeably; if she looked really hard, she could even imagine a slightest hint of approval in it. He nodded slightly, turning away.
"Do not fret, girl," Tsume suddenly said in an unusually serious tone. "This is the most unbecoming of a warrior like you. Even when death is imminent, one should not cover, but instead stand upright and challenge the gods of death themselves."
Kagome blinked, straightening up. Her limbs were still heavy after her fight with a spider, but both Sesshomaru and Tsume reminded her about the life she led as the guardian of Shikon no Tama. It was a life of constant fights and dangers, and she bore scars to prove it, but did Kagome ever showed her fear to the enemy? Truth was, that she did – not always her battles were easy, and often had Kagome feared if not for her own life, then for lives of others – but that didn't stopped her from defeating her foes in the end. And tournament's matches weren't even to the death, despite the casualties of today, especially Kagome's fight with Touran. 'Now I just feel silly.' It was not like Kagome was new to pain, after all, or any of her opponents were in real danger from her unstable side.
"Thank you for reminding me, Tsume-sama," Kagome said with a bow. The regal female smiled slightly in response, nodding favorably, and her attention returned again to the arena and the next battle, that was about to begin.
Kagome was glad to see Tsukuyomaru winning another fight, even if he was sporting a broken wrist (left, thankfully) as a result of it. She shouted her congratulations at him from her place, and saw him wave and smile back at her – just as the priestess hoped, bat's youkai keen ears were able to hear her words over the voices of everyone else in the crowd.
Two fights later, it was Sesshomaru's turn to test his strength. The lightning youkai Hiten was powerful, and while he wasn't a real threat to the mighty dog, he gave him enough of a challenge that the match wasn't over in a moment. When Sesshomaru, victorious, returned to his mother's lodge, he seemed to hold himself with a new energy, as if the fight made him less tired, not the opposite.
And now it was Kagome, who stood on the sand of the arena again, with Touran opposite of her. The wildcat woman smiled and bowed slightly in a friendly greeting.
"Glad to see you here and now, Kagome-san" she said, planting butt of her spear in sand and tossing her long blue hair. "And I know that you probably too tired for it, but I was hoping for a nice spar with you, especially after how you dealt with that spider."
If Kagome concentrated on it, she could feel that Touran's aura was weaker than usual. It was clear that even if the woman didn't show it, she was quite wearied by her previous match. Knowing that even youkai weren't completely inexhaustible made Kagome feel a bit better about herself. At least she wasn't too weak of a human, even if she couldn't fight all day long without a break like some.
"I still have some energy left in there, so be careful!" she boasted, smiling in response and unsheathing her sword. "Let's do this."
Touran nodded with a smirk in response.
A gong banged and the fight had officially begun. As soon as that happened, the wildcat twirled her spear in her hands and pointed with it at Kagome, before charging forward like a flood wave – graceful, quick and seemingly unstoppable.
Kagome knew herself and her opponent well enough to understand that the only thing that waited for her in a clash of weapons was a quick loss. Touran knew how to fight with her spear well and had decades of experience, while Kagome could barely fight against another swordsman. She didn't stand a chance against a master spearman… or a spearwoman. She was only left with her holy powers to defend herself and try to keep Touran away.
Kagome channeled a ray of reiki through Tsunohiyoru, holding it like it was a magic rod. It flew straight towards Touran, but she dodged barely, shielding herself with ice where the attack came too close to her skin, and continued to advance just as Kagome jumped back and fired an another blast. It also missed, and the next moment the wildcat was close enough to try and stab Kagome with her spear.
Knowing that even one touch of the giant spiral icicle will most probably mean her defeat, Kagome dodged desperately, at the same time putting a barrier around her. It wasn't a big one - Kagome's energy was low, and she was trying to spare it where she could. Touran's strike hit the barrier and slid to the side harmlessly, but at her exhausted state the toll it took on the priestess was felt sharply by her. She didn't think that she could hold the barrier under a barrage of attacks for long.
Touran, though, seemed to have a different idea. After another strike at a barrier, one that seemed a bit half-hearted, she stepped back.
"A barrier? Ugh. I think that I am growing to hate them. Now, I have no patience to try and break it, Kagome-san, so…" she twirled her spear again, gathering a considerate amount of youki around – probably almost everything she had left with her. Kagome moved back, ready to dodge and block and destroy whatever ice contraption the wildcat would send at her, but when Touran planted the butt of her spear in the ground, the priestess realized that the danger will not come from before her, but from beneath her.
Circle of looming ice almost instantly grew from the ground, taller than Kagome, surrounding her from all sides and blocking her view completely except for the patch of an evening sky. Just as the priestess thought about what reason Touran could have to trap her like this, the walls of ice circle began to change their shape and advance fast towards Kagome, as if trying to squeeze her between them. Not having any better ideas about what to do at the short moment of time, she held onto her barrier, hoping that it will be strong enough to survive the clash with the ice.
The walls and the barrier came together with a hiss of melting ice, but Kagome's defenses held strong, and a moment of tension later she felt a pressure on her barrier dissolving. She let out a breath, relaxing a little, but not putting her holy shield down just yet. Was that the Touran's powerful attack? Kagome didn't lost yet, she still could break her way outside. She looked around. The walls of ice seemed thick, and they were surrounding her completely, even from above now. Her barrier was quite small, and how she barely had enough space around her to raise her elbows, which will not make her task easier. But it was still possible, and Kagome started from looking for a weakest point - the place where there was the most of light coming through should be it.
"Now, your barrier will become your prison!" Touran's shout was heard from the other side of the ice walls. "You can try to get out, but will you be able to do it before your air supply will end? Of course I will break the walls before you completely suffocate, but be happy to yield anytime, Kagome-san!"
'And now, a time limit,' Kagome frowned, chewing on her lip contemplatively. She couldn't tell how much of it she had, only that there were few minutes at least, and that her time will grow shorter if she starts to breathe a lot. And then there was a matter of what she will be doing after she breaks her prison to consider. She can't just let Touran to assault her with a spear again, she needed a better plan, and thanks to her opponent Kagome had an opportunity to come up with it. She could feel audience shouting something, but ice walls muffled sounds, making cheers and boos indistinguishable.
"And how will you know if I am suffocating?" Kagome asked aloud, thinking about possible answers. Could Touran somehow see inside the prison, or was she able to determine just by other senses?
"Don't worry, I will hear easily if you will fall unconscious," Touran replied. "I may not be nor a bat, nor a princess, but my ears are keen enough for something so simple."
That information made Kagome's situation a bit easier. She sheathed Tsunohiyoru (a bit awkwardly because of lack of free space) and though hard. Some time – a minute? A few minutes? - later she could almost feel cold air around become staler and staler with each breath, but wasn't sure if it was just her imagination or not. Surely she had more time? And the walls now seemed to be closer, though Kagome still kept her barrier up as it was before. But she had an idea now, and while a dirty one, it was probably a best shot she had.
"Touran-san," Kagome said. "I have decided that I will not give up without trying. Let's see if your ice as strong as it looks!"
With that she put her palms on the wall before her, channeling her reiki. Ice made of youki sizzled and melted as if Kagome's hands were surrounded by fire, not by her holy power, but as soon as Kagome stopped for a moment, it started to grow right back. She took a deep breath, mindful of her shortening air supply and of her diminishing reiki, and continued with her task, making sure not to spend too much of both. She felt chill from the ice seep inside her, but ignored it.
When the ice wall before her had a palm-deep hole in it, Kagome felt dizzy and decided that it was a time to stop. Stumbling – very naturally, as it wasn't even really an act – Kagome felt to her knees, holding onto the wall for support and breathing heavily. Still, she pursed her lips in determination and tried to stand up, before falling again. This time, Kagome slumped completely, closing her eyes and pulling her aura within, hiding it.
Just as she expected, a moment later the ice prison broke, dissolving into nothing, and Kagome let her body fall to the sand completely, at the same time breathing in much needed fresh air. She could feel a pulse of Touran's aura coming closer.
"Kagome-san! Are you alright?" she asked from right above her. Hearing no response, Touran leaned closer. After a short pause, she added louder, as if to someone further away, "She is breathing, but unconscious!"
"Then the winner of the match is-" a judge began, only to stop mid-sentence as Kagome suddenly sprang up to Touran and hit her hard in her chest with a stack of ofudas she held in her hand - the binding ones, leftovers from her previous fight. The audience let out a collective gasp of surprise and then an onslaught of shouts of all kinds.
Touran opened her mouth in silent scream, before falling down, truly unconscious. Kagome looked at her still form with mixed feelings. Her plan had worked well – Touran never noticed the ofudas she prepared in her hand before pretending to suffocate, though Kagome barely managed to weave her spell to life stealthily before the judge announced her loss – but she didn't enjoyed using her friend's concern against her.
After a long moment judge tried again: "And the winner of the match is Higurashi Kagome!" This time nobody interrupted him, and just as the words were said, Kagome took her ofudas away from Touran. The wildcat blinked drowsily, before shaking her head and standing up. She looked at Kagome with great respect.
"So you won," she smirked. "Guess I had underestimated you in the end."
"You are not offended that I had tricked you like that?" Kagome asked with a bit of disbelief.
"Some might have been in my place, but we, wildcats, always had an appreciation for guile of a practical kind – not like senseless pranks that foxes like to perform, mind you," Touran replied and picked up her spear from where she dropped it to the ground. "And there is no trick too dirty when it comes to attaining victory."
"Then I wonder why you never tried to trick Sesshomaru-sama in order to get your spear back," Kagome asked with raised brows.
"Isn't that obvious?" Touran smirked, turning to the exit from the arena. "I am not stupid to step on the dog's tail."