Chapter 85: Jaken's Plan to steal Tessaiga
Darkness caresses the land and skies of Edo, with the luminous moon glowing a harvest orange through the clouds...
Kagura readies herself to fly out of the area of Naraku's castle again, and looks up at the moon briefly, scoffing in jealousy at its freedom that she could never possess...
Moving down below and far away from the despicable demon's fortress, we turn to a wide, open field, the only sound being the distant howl of a wolf, and Rin's draw of awed breath, as she looks around at the peacefulness that blankets the area...
(Stomach grumble)
"Hm?"
The silence would be broken, when Rin's hunger came to voice itself, and as she places a hand on her stomach, Sesshomaru's voice broke in:
"Rin."
"Yes? What is it, my lord?" The dog demon replies, his gaze fixed on the sky,
"If you're hungry, you must fend for yourself." Rin raises a hand and says casually,
"Alright! I'm off!"
She then rushes off to find some form of nourishment, while Sesshomaru continues to stare at the orange moon in thought...
We then see Jaken leading the small party of himself, A-Un and their passenger, Rin to find food, with the imp grumbling to himself,
"Doh, goodness: Lord Sesshomaru's instructed Rin to fend for herself, so why did he then order me to accompany her?"
Rin asks curiously,
"How far are we going, Master Jaken?" He replies exasperatingly,
"Until we find food; what do you think?!"
She hms...before asking another innocent question:
"Master Jaken: How exactly are you of any service to Lord Sesshomaru?"
Jaken took the question as an insult, and he stops before whirling around at Rin to yell,
"I serve him a numerable ways!"
Not fazed by his temper, Rin asks back,
"You do?"
"Yes! Er-eh, for instance..."
Jaken trails off, trying to come up with an appropriate example...before his thoughts turn to the colour of the moon:
(Gasp) Inuyasha's Tessaiga turned brilliant red!
Recalling when Inuyasha broke the Panther Demon King's barrier, he builds on the subject regarding the Tessaiga's new power:
I can't begin to fathom how Lord Sesshomaru feels.
Inuyasha's sword is becoming extremely dangerous. It can even break through a demon barrier!
It's true that my lord has his own sword, the Tokijin, as well as the Tenseiga, but no good can come from Inuyasha wielding such a deadly weapon.
He then opens his eyes, when he concludes,
I know: I simply have to take it away from him.
He laughs to himself, his mind already cooking up a scheme...Noticing his lack of attention, Rin calls on the imp back to reality:
"Master Jaken..." He turns to her and announces,
"Listen here, Rin: Today, you shall witness the great amounts I go to serve our lord! No vassal has served him as I am about to!"
Time Skip
Morning light soon comes to grace the land, and our attention turns to deep within a bamboo forest, with the long shoots of bark surrounding a dug-in dirt path on both sides, the ground a mix of grass and thick, soft moss...
On one end of the path is Inuyasha, Coraline, Shippo and Freeman, while on the other end stood Sango, Miroku and Besa, all engaged in another game that the three modern teens taught the others how to play.
Today, Coraline was wearing a turquoise fitted t-shirt, light blue jeans, and her brown hikers, with her hair tied back in two braids. Meanwhile, the twins wore semi-matching outfits of gray t-shirts, black jeans, and black/white sneakers, with Freeman donning his black leather jacket, and Besa a dark blue sweater.
Inuyasha says to Coraline in an eager tone,
"Come on, let's do it again!" She giggles at his excitement and replies,
"Right!"
She, he, Shippo and Freeman face the others with determined smiles, before waving their closed fists and shouting,
"Rock...Paper...Scissors!"
They each hold up 'Rock', while the other group holds up 'Scissors'...Shippo cheers in victory:
"Yeah, we win again!" Inuyasha chuckles and comments smugly,
"Nothin' beats the sweet smell of victory, am I right?"
Freeman grins and replies,
"Damn right," and the boys high-five, before Coraline calls them back to attention:
"Okay, let's see..."
The first group then moves forward in step to the following syllables:
"Ir-on Rea-ver, Soul Stea-ler..."
They turn around to where the others are, and Inuyasha calls back teasingly,
"Okay, ready to lose again?"
Coraline lightly slaps his shoulder with an amused smirk, before calling down the path,
"Can you all hear us back there okay?" Sango calls back,
"Loud and clear!"
Zooming in on the second group of players, Miroku sighs and droops his shoulders in disappointment from losing another round, prompting Sango to say to him,
"I wish you would stop sighing all the time. It's more irritating than losing the game."
"We would've had another chance at a draw if you, (looks at Besa) and you hadn't showed the same scissors hand I had..."
Besa rolls his eyes in response to Miroku's light complaint, and the monk suddenly widens his eyes when he guesses Sango's motive:
"Ooh, I understand, you wanted to lose on purpose so you could stay behind from the others and be with me."
His cursed hand reaches to touch Sango's behind...but ends up blocked by her weapon.
"No such thing! We simply lost, and nothing else."
Miroku shakes his hand and looks at it with a serious expression:
"The curse of this damned hand runs deeper than I expected."
Sango side-squints the monk and thinks to herself,
It's your personality that's cursed...
Besa muses,
"Actually, Miroku, it's become a known fact that in this game, people tend to tie more with those they know well than with complete strangers."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Heh, mine and Freeman's record is forty-five straight ties in one game."
Miroku and Sango gape at Besa:
"Whoa!" "That sounds like a long game!"
Speaking of, the gang gets back to theirs:
"Rock...Paper...Scissors!"
And Inuyasha's team once again bests Miroku's with 'Paper covering Rock':
"Yes! We beat those guys again!"
As Miroku groans, Shippo adds,
"And we did it with Paper: That makes it the Wind Tunnel!"
So the four move to the step of the attack's syllables:
"Wi-nd Tun-nel!"
As we move to a more dense part of the forest, we hear Miroku calling the others out on their victory:
"Now listen, are you sure you're not cheating?" Sango chides his attitude:
"Stop being such a poor loser!"
...We then see Jaken slide down one stalk of bamboo, laughing at the childishness of the group:
"Rock, Paper, Scissors!" He starts running in another direction:
Oh, they're coming this way at last!
"Now hurry up and come out, No-Man! What's taking you so long?!"
...His shout would be answered, when a man with no face, short black hair in a topknot, bare foot, wearing worn clothing consisting of a moss green haori with a blue overtop, and a grey hakama, comes crawling out of the dirt-packed ground, kneeling in front of the imp:
"You summoned?"
"No-Man, Inuyasha and his friends are coming, so get close to them and steal the Tessaiga! You are a demon born from the regrets of man, so you should be able to grasp it. Now set out and steal it!"
No-Man asks in a slow tone,
"The, Tessaiga?"
"It's Inuyasha's precious treasure."
"Is it, valuable?"
"Mhm. Find it and bring it back to me!"
Cutting back to Inuyasha and the others, it looks like the game's victors are becoming rather obvious:
"Rock...Paper...Scissors!"
Inuyasha and Shippo hold up 'Paper', and Coraline and her brother hold up 'Scissors', which beats the others once again:
"Yes, another win for us!"
Shippo compliments Coraline's skill:
"You're good at this, Coraline."
"Thanks. It's all about anticipation in this game...Alright, we won with scissors, so...Hi-ra-i-ko-stu!"
The rest of the team follows Coraline's steps, and back down the path, Sango laments,
"I can hardly seem them anymore..." Miroku asks with a touch of envy,
"If we can't see them, how are we gonna know if they cheat?" Sango replies dismissively,
"There you go again," while Besa smiles exasperatingly and comments,
"I think we might have to call it quits soon..."
...It was then the three feel something off in the air, and turn to the right with suspicious glares:
"Hm?"
"Miroku."
"What is that?"
Coraline feels a familiar pulse in her blood, and Lumos pops out of her satchel, also on the defense:
"(Ghostly moan)"
"Inuyasha, guys: Something's coming this way."
"What?"
The turn around to the bamboo...just as it begins to blanket in a thick, light grey fog...
"What is this?"
"A mist?"
Coraline disagrees:
"No, it's too thick to be mist...more like smoke."
Sango asks the two with her,
"Think it's a mountain fire?"
"No, not likely."
"We would've smelled burning wood if it-Gah! What was that?!"
Soon, the foggy smoke was so thick that no one could see eachother...Sango then feels the same something Besa felt brush her, and immediately accused Miroku:
"Get your hands off me!"
(Slap)
"Ow! It wasn't me, Sango!"
On the other end of the path, the rest of the group was coughing badly from the thickness of the smoky fog, before Coraline felt the force touch her:
"Ah! Hey, get off!" Inuyasha calls out for her:
"Coraline!"
...Lumos then makes his body glow brighter, and hovers at a certain spot with intent, sending Inuyasha the message to hit there:
"(Punch) Why you...!"
...A few seconds later, the fog clears, leaving everyone to recover their sinuses from the strange event...But as soon as Coraline reached into her jeans pocket, there would be a new problem to deal with:
"Oh crap! The jewel shards: They're gone!" Inuyasha shouts,
"What do ya mean they're gone?!"
Freeman realizes,
"Hang on...this smoke was a rouse: Someone or something did it to take the shards!"
We cut back into the forest where the bamboo trees shifted into regular oak mixing with the brush, as Jaken paces up and down on the mossy grass waiting for his subordinate to return:
What's taking that bumbling fool so long?!
It was then No-Man steps into the area:
"Hm?"
As his head heals from an injury (confirming that Inuyasha landed a fist into his skull), the demon says to the imp,
"Master Jaken, I brought your treasures."
"Excellent! Did you get the Tessaiga?"
The first thing the demon brought out of is robes was...a few of Shippo's fox toys?
"Here."
"That's not it!"
Next was was purple/yellow checkered handkerchief, and a chain of copper coins:
"That's not it either!"
Then a red cloth:
"I have no need for those!"
And finally, No-Man holds out Coraline's Mp3 player with headphones attached, two sweets, a pencil, the bottle of shards, Shippo's snake skin charm, and a comb:
"What about these treasures?"
...Jaken jumps up and bonks the demon numerous times on the head with his staff, prompting the former to drop the items to the ground, while the latter shouts,
"You fool! These aren't treasures!"
He lands down and kicks dirt and sand at No-Man, before hopping up and down in a tantrum:
"Why didn't you bring me back the Tessaiga?!"
As his head balloons back from the repeated blows, No-Man asks somewhat clueless,
"Tes-saiga?"
Jaken climbs up his staff to the demon's 'eye-level' and explains,
"Inuyasha's sword!"
"Oh...All he had was a rusty old thing."
"Fool! That's the (tips over) o-o-o-o-one!" As he picks up the items, No-Man replies,
"It didn't look nearly as valuable as these treasures..."
Jaken springs back to a sitting position and shouts,
"Stop babbling nonsense and go get me the sword!"
No-Man sighs, but walks off to do as Jaken commands, with the imp grumbling,
"Doh, what a dimwit..."
Rin then pops out from behind a nearby tree and asks,
"Master Jaken, are you certain that the demon can handle this?"
The imp looks down in disappointment:
"If only I had some henchmen, this job would be much easier...(Looks up in thought) Aah, for the old days, when I was the commander and had many serving under me..."
Flashback
We see Jaken, sword in hand, sitting atop a sedan being carried by a few imps, while many others stand around him with spears at the ready over a dark-clouded backdrop...
"Back then, I had hundreds of demons and controlled the plains of Musachi..."
He and the imps would soon engage in bloody combat with several different species of demons, varying from badgers to snakes to horned humanoids...
"We were in battle with the demons that controlled the eastern mountains..."
Cut to a profile of a tall, dark grey-skinned demon with claws, wearing a muted pink robe, pink-red eyes, and long, thick white hair...
"Their leader was Becuni, whom despite being several hundred years old, was a formidable foe."
The demon then seizes Jaken into its hands, who writhes and yells, as he's pulled closer to the other's open jaws...
"Just then...!"
Sesshomaru then appears on scene, and says to Becuni,
"You're in my way. Step aside."
The demon paid no attention, but Jaken's eyes were on him:
"Who is that?!"
Sesshomaru calls out again, his body glowing in a demonic aura:
"I said you're in my way."
He pulls out his poison whip:
"Understand?"
The whip cuts through Becuni's arms effortlessly, freeing Jaken from the other's grip! As he falls down, watching Sesshomaru kill the rest of Becuni's army with no mercy, he wonders in awe,
...Who is he?
As soon as he lands on the ground, Jaken pushes himself up and calls to his army,
"Stand down: Clear a path for him!"
The imps do as he commands, and Sesshomaru walks among the imp army with a cool air, while they (including Jaken) kowtow in respect...
As he passes Jaken, the imp looks up at the demon in awe:
He's, beautiful...
"Look at him...He's so dashing!"
...Jaken then rises to his feet, and starts following the dog demon, much to the other imp's confusion:
"Master Jaken!" He stops briefly to send the following message:
"Forget me and live on your own accord!"
"Master Jaken!" "Wait, come back!"
But the imps could only watch, as their leader leaves...Jaken follows Sesshomaru into a deep forest, kowtowing in front of the other:
"Forgive me for following you. It may not have been your intention, but you saved my life. It would be an honour to become your servant."
Sesshomaru continues on, not saying a word to the imp...Looking up, and sensing no signs of his life being in danger, Jaken continues to tail him:
"A-A moment of your time!"
Their next destination would be a large waterfall, with Jaken kowtowing on one rock, while Sesshomaru reaches into the billowing water...pulling out the Staff of Two Heads!
He looks over at Jaken...before tossing him the staff:
"Here."
Jaken fumbles but catches the staff, and looks at it, before turning his gaze to Sesshomaru:
"Thank you...What is it?"
"I entrust it to you if you know how to use it." Jaken gasps, before bowing and holding up the staff in a thankful gesture:
"I am most honoured...Tell me...what is your name? I-I mean, I must know!"
"...Sesshomaru."
"Ah...Sesshomaru."
End of Flashback
"It's been several decades since that day, and I have long thought of how to repay my debt of gratitude..."
Jaken frowns and concludes,
"I cannot leave this to that bumbling demon."
He gets up and rushes off in the direction where No-Man went, while Rin watched him go with a worried frown:
"He sure finds ways to keep himself busy..."
Moving back into the bamboo cover, we see No-Man kneeling by a burning pile of leaves, using a fan to wave the smoke out...
It was then Inuyasha and the others come out from the thicker part of the stalks to confront him:
"Kuh, so you're the thief, are you?"
Coraline glares at the demon and demands,
"Give us back the jewel shards you took or face our wrath!"
Sango wasn't anymore pleased than she was:
"You've got some nerve stealing from us in broad daylight."
Not paying attention to the rising tempers, No-Man walks up and starts looking for the true object of his quarry:
"The sword...the sword...Oh, there it is."
Everyone moves into defensive positions, while Inuyasha pulls his sword out threateningly:
"What're you doin'?"
"Give me the Tessaiga..."
But as soon as No-Man's fingertips touched the blade:
(Bzzzt)
"Uh!"
He was thrown backwards by the Tessaiga's power! Inuyasha chuckles at the failed attempt:
"He bounced right off the Tessaiga's barrier." Sango comments,
"That's what happens when a demon tries to touch your sword..."
The group then moves to surround the demon, who was reeling in pain on the ground courtesy of Tessaiga's power. Freeman folds his arms and furrows his eyebrows in confusion:
"Who is this guy, anyway?" Shippo answers with a sympathetic frown,
"In this age of civil war, many men have gone to fight battles and have returned to find their land, their farms and even their homes destroyed or stolen. The combined sadness and bitterness of their losses gave rise to this demon's birth."
Sango frowns and says,
"How tragic. I feel sorry for him." Besa adds dryly,
"He's a bit too pathetic to really take down, isn't he?" Coraline nods:
"Yeah. Let's just let him off as long as he returns the things he stole from us."
No-Man rises to his feet, and lifts his haori, causing the items he stole from the group to tumble to the ground:
"Oh, there's the bottle of shards! And, my Mp3 player?"
"And my spinning top!"
"And my things too!"
As everyone takes back the items that belong to them, No-Man turns to walk away from the area, with Shippo calling to his back,
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
The demon pauses to send a nod, and Coraline adds,
"Let's hope this doesn't happen again, or you'll end up on the sharp end of one of our blades!"
No-Man waves at the group, and Miroku chides,
"If you'd like, I'll read a sutra to calm your spirit."
The demon does not reply, and turns to keep walking...Freeman and Besa then use some sand and dirt to douse the fire:
"There. Now they're won't be any forest fires."
"Okay, we can go now."
As the group moves on their way, Inuaysha comments No-Man's nonchalant behaviour:
"Took that pretty easily." Sango and Miroku reply respectively,
"Strange demon."
"Takes all kinds, even when it comes to demons."
Unbeknownst to them, Jaken then walks on scene, grumbling,
"Curse that blasted demon!"
He then smells something burning, courtesy of a dying ember catching on his clothes:
"Hm? Who's cooking? (Looks back at his robes) Oh, that'd be me...Gah!"
He dashes off in a random direction while squawking,
"Help, I'm burning up! Water-water-water-water-water-water, where the waaaaaa-aaaaa!"
His trek takes him to the edge of the forest, namely...off a cliff!
"Help, help, help, help, help, help, help hel-"
He cuts himself off, when he sees that there was no ground under his feet anymore...
"Daaah! Going, dooooowwwwwnnnnnnn!"
...Back on the forest path, Coraline pauses, when her ears catch the tail-end of Jaken's shriek:
"...That was odd."
"What?"
"I might be imagining things, but did anyone else hear a yelp just now?"
The others shake their heads, and Inuyasha says to Coraline,
"You're definitely imagining things," and Miroku adds,
"We've already taken care of the demon, so let's keep moving ahead."
"Hm, alright."
Besa suggests,
"It might just be an echo from somewhere else. Sound travels weirdly in deep forests."
Way down below the bamboo-oak forest, we see a majorly disheveled Jaken push himself up onto a boulder, while crying out angrily,
"Curse you, Inuaysha, you wretch!"
Rin comes flying by on A-Un and says to the imp worriedly,
"That must hurt, Master Jaken."
"Of course it does!"
"Well I suppose you're giving up then." Jaken scrambles to his feet and shouts,
"Never! Now would you stop interfering and questioning my every move?! Now be off!"
"But I thought you said you wanted me to see you in action..."
As she and A-Un fly off to land somewhere else, Jaken denies his claim:
"I said no such thing!" He then clenches his fist and remarks,
"Just you wait, Inuyasha...I will take the Tessaiga away from you! Just you wait and seeeeee!"
Small Time Skip
We cut back to the Inuyasha group, as they reach a more dense part of the forest, with a mix of red cedar and breech trees surrounding them, along with thick bushes decorating the ground, some carrying white lilies...Inuyasha comments on earlier events:
"Well that took a big bite out of the day..." Coraline replies,
"Yeah, but didn't anyone else find it strange that the demon seemed to be going after Inuyasha's sword?"
They all hm, but don't give the matter anymore thought than needed...They soon come across another demon, they being Jaken in the disguise of an older imp with white hair, bushy eyebrows, moustache and beard, he sitting on a tatami, with a signboard standing on his left. He calls to them in an older and weedy tone,
"Greetings, young travelers."
"Hm?"
The group stops, and Miroku reads the sign displayed:
"What's this? 'In training...Offering free advice and weapon sharpening'."
Inuyasha wasn't all convinced:
"I dunno about you guys, but I don't like the looks of this old guy." Jaken says to him,
"Keep it coming, sonny. You're only adding to my character."
Hehehe, this incense has dulled Inuyasha's sense of smell. He has no idea who I am!
"What will it be? Can I sharpen your lives or your knifes?"
"Sharpen a life?" Miroku asks Inuyasha,
"So why don't you let him work on your sword, Inuyasha?"
"(Grips the hilt) On my sword?" Jaken replies,
"Yes. I'd be honoured." Sango smiles and comments,
"Huh, how unusual to find a sword-sharpening monk." Coraline muses,
"You never know what sort of profession you'll come across here in the Sengoku Era...Hm..."
With that, Sango places her Hiraikotsu on the sharpening tablet:
"No charge, right?" Next was Miroku's staff:
"How generous of you."
Besa then places his sickles into the growing pile:
"Pardon me for adding on." Then Shippo tosses on his spinning top:
"Don't forget this!"
"Um, just hold on..." Miroku chimes,
"Well, that's about all that needs sharpening. We'll be back later to pick them up."
With that, the group walks off, with Inuyasha holding onto his blade and Coraline her two blades:
"Do a good job, old man!"
"See you soon!"
...As soon as they were gone, Jaken scratches his fake hair in frustration for his plan backfiring again:
"Bllrgh, Inuyasha! Alright, I'll sharpen them!"
He holds up one of Besa's sickles and says to himself determinedly,
"If I can do a good job on these weapons, then he'll want me to do his sword as well, and that'll be the perfect opportunity to steal it from him!"
He starts with the sickles, placing each blade onto the tablet, and rubbing it up and down to sharpen the dullness away. He would do the same for Shippo's top, then Miroku's staff, and then Sango's Hiraikotsu, working feverishly but with a careful eye...
While he was hard at work, we cut over to the nearby river, where Rin was, she bathing A-Un, rubbing a wet cloth over the dragon demon's scales...Her mind wanders to the callus words sent to her by Jaken, and she hmphs, before thinking to herself,
Alright, Master Jaken: I'll stay away if that's what he wants.
"...Hm?"
She then spots a light pink lotus flower floating along in the water, and is sparked by inspiration:
"Oh! That's a good idea!"
She hops down from the rock she was standing on and says to A-Un excitedly,
"Come with me!"
We move back to the weapon sharpening stall set up by Jaken, as everyone returns to collect their weapons, his incense close to burning out...Shippo picks up his top and exclaims,
"Wow, that looks excellent!"
Miroku drops a leaf over the blade end of his staff, and it cuts in two:
"Yes, this is nicely done, monk-in-training!" Sango marvels over her Hirakotsu's new shine:
"My weapon's never look so good!" Besa was just as pleased with his sickles:
"Wow, this is great! No way I'll have trouble with fighting a demon now."
Inuyasha mutters,
"Guess I should've left my sword with the old guy..."
Shippo looks over to see that Jaken was asleep on the tatami, snoring rather loudly...
"That's too bad: He's word so hard, he's fallen asleep." Coraline chides,
"Let's leave him to rest then," with Miroku adding,
"He deserves to not be awoken."
Inuaysha concedes and says,
"Oh well. My loss, I guess...Hey, wait, Coraline: How come you didn't give him your blades?"
As the group readies to leave, she simply replies with a shrug,
"Just didn't feel like it. Besides, I know a few good sharpening and buffing techniques myself, and I work hard to make sure they're battle-ready before and after."
...A while later, as the sun lowers from the sky and casts pink, orange and red into the atmosphere, we find Jaken rousing from his sleep, a small thank-you note plastered onto his person:
"(Snore...) Mmm...Huh?"
His eyes snap open, and he quickly finds the weapons gone along with their owners:
"What happened?! The weapons are gone! I've been had, I've been duped!"
He hits himself in the face at his blunder and screeches while beating his fists on the tatami,
"Inuyasha was suppose to leave his sword here, so I could sharpen-I mean, steal it!"
Jaken suddenly stops, when another idea comes to his mind:
Wait...There might still be a way.
He moves to an area littered in boulders and small rocks, the ground reduced to grainy sand, and plasters a red paper sutra onto one, before performing an odd intricate dance, then hitting the sutra with the butt end of his staff...
(Sploosh)
The spell activates, and hot water starts to spill out from the rock! Jaken jeers,
"Just you wait, Inuyasha, for tonight, you shall lose possession of your precious sword!"
He lets out a smug laugh to the skies, as the water pools around the rocky area...
Small Time Skip
As evening falls, we turn to a small clearing within the nearby woods, as A-Un watches Rin gather some small pink petaled flowers into a bouquet...Once she deemed the amount in her hands to be enough, Rin stands back up with a smile and says,
"I've picked all these flowers for Lord Sesshomaru. (Looks to A-Un) I better go."
...But come another hour or two later, Rin and A-Un would find themselves rather turned around within the mimicking trees and shrubs growing in the thick forest...
"Uh, oh...I can't remember which way to go. I must've gone too far. I think I'm lost."
Rin looks to the left head of the dragon demon and asks,
"Can you smell any trace of Lord Sesshomaru?"
They shake their head 'No', and the young girl forms a small frown of disappointment:
"Oh. Then we really are lost. I'll have to go back to Jaken."
At that, A-Un turns to move out to where they remember the imp was last...
Meanwhile, just outside the forest, Inuyasha and the others were setting up camp for the night, getting a fire going, and finally stopping to rest. Coraline drops to her knees and mutters,
"Ho-ly, my legs haven't felt this sore for a while..." Sango was also feeling fatigue in her lower appendages:
"Mine are too..."
Miroku looks over into the distance between some skinny tree trunks, and spots a source of water:
"Huh? Is that...a hot spring?"
Besa walks up to stand at his side, and peers his eyes over where the other was looking:
"...Looks like."
Coraline hears them and perks up:
"Out here? Really?"
Everyone decides to check it out, and finds the spring in the next clearing over, the water steaming and giving off a clean air...
"Wow, that looks fantastic!" Sango was as pleased as Freeman was:
"That was lucky." Miroku offers with masked slyness,
"I guess you wanna bathe with me."
She side-glares the monk, before thumping him on the head with one end of her boomerang:
"Gh! On second thought, maybe not..."
Freeman laughs and whispers,
"That was a fail straight up..."
Coraline puts down her satchel and grabs out a towel and a pair of clean clothes:
"I believe the saying goes, ladies first. Shippo, you're welcome to join us if you wish."
"Okay!"
With that decided, the men head back to the camp for now and give the girls and fox demon some privacy...Jaken peeks out from behind a tree nearby the spring, grinning to himself while thinking,
Heheheh, I'll sneak Inuyasha's sword away while he's bathing in my hot spring.
But when he looks over the rocks, he sees that it was just Sango, Coraline and Shippo in the water right now:
"This feels terrific!"
"Aah, I'll say it does..."
The imp becomes disappointed at seeing his plan was not going as he had hoped:
"Doh, no Inuyasha...Maybe dog demons don't like water..."
Back at the camp, Inuyasha examines Miroku's staff and Besa's sickles with some envy:
"Maybe I should've asked him to."
"The sharpening monk, you mean?"
"Yeah. It seems like he knew what he was doin'."
Jaken listens from nearby, and wonders,
"If he's looking for the sharpener, I can make that happen. Then I can take his sword away from him! Oh, very well..."
But just as the imp scrambles to put on his disguise, Coraline called from the spring,
"We're done, you guys!" Inuyasha calls back,
"Coming!" Miroku chides to the men,
"Let's be on our way, then." Besa nods, and Freeman grins while exclaiming,
"Hot water, here we come!"
Jaken whirls down where they were and mutters,
"They're going in? Make up your mind!"
Over in the spring, the men strip before moving into the hot spring with matching sighs of bliss, Freeman quoting,
"Oh yeah, that's the ticket..."
As Jaken peers over the rocks to spy, Inuyasha calls out,
"No peeking!"
Thinking he was spotted, the imp ducks and exclaims,
"Sorry, didn't mean to!" But Coraline's sarcastic response would snap him to realization:
"Yeah, sure, smart guy: Like I'm the pervert of our group?"
"...Oops! I guess he wasn't talking to me."
As their faces flush from the heat of the water, Miroku blissfully muses,
"This really hits the spot..." Inuyasha agreed:
"Yeah..."
The twins only hmmed, content smiles on their faces...Jaken chuckles and starts creeping over to where the Tessaiga rested:
"Take your time and have nice, long bath...Mm? Oh! I found the sword! Yes!"
But as soon as his fingertips touched the sheath:
(Bzzt)
The barrier zaps him, and his body combusts into blue flames:
"Gaah!"
His body goes back to normal upon hitting the ground, and he mutters,
"It's my fault, I shouldn't have been so hasty..."
Jaken then spots Inuyasha's Red Fire Robe, and gets an idea:
"Wait, I know!"
He takes the top half and walks over to the sword again:
I'll go like this...
Up above, Rin rides the flying A-Un, her frown turning into a smile when she spots the imp below...Zooming in, we see that Jaken has tied the robe around the sheath of Tessaiga, and was now dragging it away on the ground with a smile of victory:
My intelligence is truly formidable!
We check back with Inuyasha, Miroku and the twins, still relaxing in the hot spring, before they notice a familiar shadow gliding across the sky:
"Huh?"
"What's that?"
They then recognize the form to be A-Un, and immediately stand up on alert:
"Sesshomaru!"
"Or his dragon at least."
"Still, doesn't mean he's not nearby."
But just as those conclusions were drawn, the men then felt a wave of nausea hit them and began to wobble on the spot:
"A-Ah, oh man..."
"W-What's, happening...?"
"My head..."
"So, dizzy..."
All four would then fall backwards into the water with a splash, prompting Coraline to rush over in concern:
"Inuyasha! Guys, are you-"
She then cuts herself off in shock, when she sees the dog demon's naked body, unconscious, floating in the spring water:
...Oh...shit!
Coraline's face lights up a bright red, and she whirls around while covering her face in a mix of shame and embarrassment:
"O-Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Inuyasha mutters, still a bit dizzy,
"S-Sesshomaru is..."
Sango runs over, dressed in her slayer gear, and informs the redhead,
"I'll go and try to slow him down. You take care of these four."
Coraline nods meekly, and Sango calls for her cat demon companion:
"Let's go, Kilala."
...As soon as they head out, Coraline stutters to Inuyasha, her cheeks still rosy,
"O-Okay, h-how d-do you want to d-d-do this?"
"(Weakly points) Over there, over there, my clothes, get my clothes!"
She sees the clothing of all four men laying nearby the spring, and runs over to get Inuyasha's first:
"Okay, clothes are here...But-Oh crap: The Tessaiga!"
Jumping over a ways into the forest, Jaken continues to drag the sword away down the path with a happy smile, before he stops to the following call:
"Master Jaken, I found you!"
"Huh? (Turns around) Rin! What're you doing here?"
She replies as the two-headed dragon demon lands on the ground,
"I can't seem to find my way back." Before the imp could make any reply:
"Stop right there!"
Sango and Kilala appear overhead, heading right for them! Jaken exclaims,
"I've been found out! Hang on: Rin is human, so she should be able to hold onto the Tessaiga..."
He quickly unwraps the sword from the fire robe and hands it to the girl while urging,
"Rin, hurry and take this to Lord Sesshomaru at once!"
"But how?"
It was then Sango throws down her weapon towards the imp:
"Hiraikotsu!"
(Toss, spin...)
But Jaken uses the Staff of Two Heads to deflect the weapon with fire, and says to Rin,
"Hurry and go while I deal with this demon slayer!"
He knocks A-Un's side with his staff, prompting the two-headed dragon demon to take off to the skies with Rin...
"You're not going anywhere!"
Dodging another attack from Jaken, Sango orders her companion,
"Let's cut 'em off, Kilala!"
"Not, so, fast!"
Jaken would block the slayer and cat demon with a third shoot of fire, forcing them to tumble backwards before regaining their balance. Just as the imp smiles poudly at his success, Inuyasha voice cuts in:
"That's far enough, Jaken!"
He looks to his left, and sees the dog demon (with just his bottom robe layer on) running over with the rest of the group (the other men also dressed)! Inuyasha leaps in front of Jaken and demands,
"Give me back my Tessaiga!"
"I dunno anything about it."
"What?"
Just as Inuyasha takes a step forward, A-Un circles back to the area, and shoots out a twin lightning attack from their mouths, blasting Inuyasha off his feet:
"Guh!"
"Master Jaken!"
"Rin, you fool! Why did you return?"
Miroku rushes over with Shippo to check on Inuyasha:
"Inuyasha, are you alright?"
"Yeah..."
Meanwhile, Coraline's focus was on A-Un's passenger:
"Hang on..."
Is that...a little girl? Who is she?
Tossing the flowers aside, Rin reaches her hand down to Jaken and says,
"Come on, take my hand!"
"Rin!"
The imp does so with no protest, and A-Un starts to float up again...
"Hold on tight; I've got you!"
Rin struggles to pull the imp up, and chooses to cast away the Tessaiga for another free hand, and uses both to pull Jaken onto the dragon demon:
"Rgh...rgh!"
Once he was settled on, Jaken asks the young girl in a softer tone,
"Rin, but why did you come back?"
"Huh? Because...I couldn't help but worry about you, Jaken."
Jaken was taken aback, and shuts his eyes in thought...before opening them again to ask,
"Oh, right, where's the Tessaiga?"
Rin gasps, and looks back down below, Jaken following suit, and they watch as Inuyasha takes back his sword. The imp exclaims,
"I don't believe this!"
His face then colours over in a shade of blue, before he faints...
"Hello? Is something the matter? Jaken!"
Back down on the ground, as Inuyasha ties Tessaiga back onto his hip, he grumbles,
"Damn that Jaken. He's gonna pay for this next time I see him!"
Sango comments,
"It seems that he was after the sword and not you." Miroku found this odd:
"Strange that there's no sign of Sesshomaru..."
Inuaysha concludes,
"Jaken must've come up with this plan all on his own."
...Sango then notices that Coraline was quiet the whole time, and says to her,
"Coraline, you look pale. He didn't steal anything from you too, did he?"
The redhead smiles halfheartedly and replies,
"Nope. Everything's here. My mind's just, wandering a bit..."
"Heh, nothing dirty, I hope. You know, 'cause of what ya saw earlier..."
She glares at her smirking brother Freeman and punches his shoulder:
"Shut up, you pervert! My mind's clean of such images, unlike yours!"
He just laughs, and Besa faceplams, while Coraline and Inuyasha share a quick glance at eachother...before blushing a bit, both still embarrassed by before.
As her blush cools down, Coraline muses to herself,
Good grief, what a night...
Anyway, it looks like no one else saw her. That young girl...She came to Jaken's rescue.
It's strange: Sesshomaru has boasted on and on about his hatred of humans, and yet it seems he now has one traveling with him and Jaken...
Wonder what could've brought about that?
Scene Shift: Watermelon Field
We rejoin Rin, Jaken and A-Un, as they stop in their travels in a large field of watermelons, the sweet fragrance enough to lure any hungry traveler to stop and eat...
Unfortunately, the imp's appetite did not exist, he sulking over his plans to steal the Tessaiga all backfiring:
All that work for nothing...
Rin remained as positive as ever, as she looks over the melons for one to take:
"They all look delicious. Which one should I choose, Master Jaken?"
"Who cares? Leave me alone!"
"Maybe I'll have two, or three."
As Jaken looks up to the sky, the moon still shining the brilliant orange, he thinks to himself,
Lord Sesshomaru and his whims: Why does he insist on keeping a human girl at his side?
Rin digs into a melon, marveling at the flavour of the juices:
"This is one is sweet too. (Looks back) Watch over the other ones for me, okay, Master Jaken?"
He hmphs, but muses,
Oh well, no sense complaining.
(Flash)
"...I couldn't help but worry about you..."
(Flash)
If Rin hadn't returned at just that moment, I would've suffered a terrible beating at Inuyasha's hands.
...Suddenly:
(Whoooosh)
A strong gust of wind comes blowing over the field, before the demon incarnation Kagura lands down between the imp and young girl!
"It's you again!"
"Hmph. Sesshomaru can be so careless, taking his eyes off his ward."
She uses her fan to send another gust of wind against Jaken, knocking him off his feet, before dissipating as quick as it came...But when he moves to stand up, Jaken found himself the only one left in the field!
"Rin! Rin! Riiiin!"
But his shouts would go unanswered, for the poor girl was already too far away, upon Kagura's feather, heading on a straight course to Naraku's castle...!