DISCLAIMER: I don't own Inuyasha or the book called 'Hasse Simonsdochter' written by Thea Beckman, nor do I own the characters of these two stories!! But I do own the idea of mixing these two ingredients into a new story.
Italic: thoughts
-- --: locations
"...": spoken words
~*~*~*~*~: time gap / or change of POV
*...* : noises
-by Kittymui-
Sudden encounter
Uhn... Kagome slowly opened her eyes.
"You're finally awake." a familiar voice spoke next to her.
Kagome looked up and saw Sesshoumaru sitting on the bedside, next to her.
"Sesshoumaru..." she whispered softly, slowly pushing herself up.
Sesshoumaru quickly put his arms behind her back and helped her to sit up. "How are you feeling?" he asked with a gentle voice.
Kagome leaned her head on Sesshoumaru's chest, after she managed to sit up. "I'm okay...just feeling a bit weak, that's all." she murmured.
"Ah! You're awake!!" a child's voice sounded from the doorway. Kagome
and Sesshoumaru turned to the person who spoke and saw a small brown kitsune
youkai standing at the doorway with a glass of water in his tiny hands.
He was wearing a small yellow shirt with short blue pants. He had a small brown ponytail and a fuzzy short brown tail. If he would stand next to Kagome, he would be around the height of her knees.
Kawaii! Kagome thought to herself. "Hi, little one. I'm Kagome, what's your name?" she started with a cheerful voice.
Shippou put down the glass of water on the chair next to the cabinet and walked to the bedside, looking up at Sesshoumaru and Kagome.
"I-I'm Shippou." he answered with a small voice.
Kagome noticed the fear in the small kitsune's eyes when they were looking at Sesshoumaru. She smiled. "Don't worry, he won't hurt you."
Shippou relaxed and smiled. "Supper is almost ready, please change your clothes and come downstairs to join us." he said before he hurried out of the room.
"So...let's get you dressed up then." Sesshoumaru said after a short
moment of silence.
Kagome suddenly remembered what happened to her garments and sighed. "But my garments and armor were..." she said with a sad voice. "Even the bow and arrows that you bought for me..." she wailed.
Sesshoumaru didn't reply, instead, he stood up and walked towards the cabinet.
He opened it, picked up something and walked back to Kagome.
When Kagome looked at what Sesshoumaru was holding in his hands, her eyes widened.
Sesshoumaru was holding her garments and armor, exactly the same as the one
that was torn apart during their mission, but this one wasn't even damaged at
all.
Sesshoumaru put them on Kagome's lap and walked to the cabinet again. This time he picked up something that was lying on the ground next to the cabinet and walked back to Kagome again.
Kagome's widened her eyes even more as she realized they were a bow and a quiver with arrows that he was holding. It looked more beautiful than the one Sesshoumaru bought before. The bow and quiver were made of dark wood. The grip of the bow and the edges of the quiver were coated with iron in order to strengthen the structure. The arrows were blessed with silver arrowheads, fine sturdy wood and stabilizing cross-shaped feathered tails.
"H-how??" Kagome said surprised, looking up at Sesshoumaru.
"Kouga went back to Paedra yesterday." he explained. "You've really gained a lot of respect out of my men." he smirked.
Kagome was almost going to cry of hearing this but quickly pushed back her tears. She took the bow and quiver of his hands and held it close to her chest. "Thank you..." she whispered.
~*~*~*~ In the meanwhile ~*~*~*~
Renkotsu, Kyoukotsu and Kouga were sitting at the dining table and waiting for supper. Miroku and Sango were busy in the kitchen and Shippou was walking in and out of the kitchen, carrying all sorts of dishes and putting them on the dining table.
"That smells really nice." a soft voice spoke from the stairs, causing Shippou and the rest to stop their activities and turn their attention to the person who spoke.
"Kagome-sama!" Kouga cried out happily and all three youkai wanted to stand up from their chairs until Kagome stopped them. "No no! No need to stand up." she smiled.
Kagome was standing on the stairs (halfway) with Sesshoumaru next to her; holding her hand to steady her. Kagome was wearing her male outfit again, but this time without the armor on top; only the haori and hakama.
"Ah! The sleeping beauty finally woke up again!" a voice spoke from the doorway to the kitchen.
Kagome turned to the person who spoke as she settled herself on a chair at the table. She gave him a puzzled look until a woman came out of the kitchen and hit the man's head with a spoon.
"If you have time to talk crap, then you should help me bring out the pot!" she ordered angrily.
They look like a couple to me... Kagome thought amused. This woman
seems very strong to me...
The woman approached Kagome. She was wearing a normal light purple yukata with
short sleeves and her hair was tied into one long ponytail.
"I'm apologize for my husband's behavior, he's always like that around pretty ladies." the woman apologized.
Kagome shook her head. "It's okay." she said as she stood up again.
"I'm Kagome, but they all refer me as Sora when I'm supposed to hide the fact that I'm a woman." she smiled.
"Mine's Sango and yes, I believe I've already caught you name several times yesterday." the woman chuckled. Her words caused Kagome to blush.
"My name is Miroku, nice to meet you, Kagome-sama." Miroku said as he came out of the kitchen again, carrying a large pot.
"I heard from Sesshoumaru that you both saved my life." Kagome said. "Thank you.
"No need to thank us." he responded as he put down the pot on the table and walked to Sango's side. "We only did what we could. It really depended on your own strength whether you'll wake up again." he explained.
"No time for chit-chats!!" Sango suddenly broke through the conversation. "The food is getting cold and it would be a waste since we've put so much effort cooking it!!"
Kagome laughed at her seriousness towards the food and soon everybody shared the laughter as they all sat down and began to eat.
They talked about all kinds of things: about how Kagome met Sesshoumaru, how they got married, how the mission went and so on.
~*~*~*~ two weeks later ~*~*~*~
Sango stood in front of the inn with Miroku behind her. Shippou and Kirara were working in the stable.
Sesshoumaru and the three youkai stood on the unpaved road, equipped and ready to leave. They were only waiting for Kagome.
"If we had met you sooner, we would surely have joined your group."
Sango said as she handed over a bag filled with nourishments to Kagome.
At the same time Shippou appeared with Kagome's horse out of the stable. He drove the horse next to Kagome, and jumped from the horseback to Sango's shoulder. "We'll really miss you guys!" he said with a sad voice.
Kagome smiled. "I'm sure our roads will cross each other again someday." she said before she took the bag and turned around to attach it to her horse.
Kagome was wearing her male outfit and armor again and her hair was tied into
one braid, resting on her shoulder. With her quiver on her back and bow on her
shoulder, she mounted the horse.
After she settled herself on it, she turned to look at Sango and Shippou and
then Miroku. "Thank you for your hospitality the past weeks. Till we meet
again." she said before she kicked the horse and drove it towards the rest
of her group.
"Goodbye!" Sango and Shippou said in unison as they waved after them. Miroku came forward to stand next to Sango and did the same.
~*~*~*~ A couple of hours later ~*~*~*~
Sesshoumaru was walking in front of the whole group again. The rest were positioned
just like when they did during their mission: Kagome in de middle with her horse,
one on her left, one on her right and the last one walking behind her.
The road they were walking on turned into a low dyke again. The road had gradually risen not long after they left the inn, and they were now traveling about 2 meters above the ground where the trees stood.
After riding a while, Kagome couldn't resist to ask the question again.
"Where are we heading?"
Without looking back at her or stopping, Sesshoumaru answered her question. "Following this road till we reach the next city or town, so that we can accomplish another mission."
"Ehh?! Another mission?? But we've just had one 3 weeks ago!" Kagome cried out.
"There's no other choice. We need the money." he stated plainly. "Buying your new garments and weapons took quite a part of the reward we got from the mission."
"Then you're blaming me?" Kagome responded with an annoyed look all over her face.
"No, I'm just telling you the facts." he replied.
"Humpf!!" Kagome spat defeated and stuck up her nose.
[AN: Yes, they are still walking during their arguments.]
Kouga suddenly chuckled as soon as they stopped arguing.
"What's so funny??" Kagome said as she jerked her head towards Kouga.
Kouga averted his gaze in order to stop himself from bursting into laughter. "N-nothing! Nothing!!" he excused.
"Tell me or__" Kagome growled but halted herself and her horse when
she heard some noise.
The rest of the group had also heard it and stopped their pace at the same time.
"What was that?" Renkotsu said alerted.
Sesshoumaru and Kagome scanned the area around them. Since they were walking
on a dyke, it wasn't difficult to see the vicinity around them, although there
were only trees around them.
Suddenly Kagome's eyes caught a glimpse of red at a far distance in the middle
of the woods.
Sesshoumaru also saw it, and growled. Is it him? No...it shouldn't be... he pondered.
"There!" Kagome cried out as soon as she lost the glimpse of red out of her eyesight. Kagome quickly kicked her horse, causing it to run to the edge of the dyke and jump from it into the forest.
"Kagome-sama!! Wait!!" Kouga, Renkotsu and Kyoukotsu cried in unison, before they all turned to Sesshoumaru.
Sesshoumaru returned the look and nodded. "Let's go!" he ordered. With that, Sesshoumaru jumped off the dyke and dashed into the direction Kagome disappeared; the rest did the same.
~*~*~
Kagome was driving her horse into the direction where she saw the flash of red. I wonder what's happening there... she wondered as she continued her way through the trees.
She narrowed her eyes and slowed down her horse as she reached the clearing. Suddenly her eyes caught something dashing very fast into the direction straight ahead of Kagome. When she looked more carefully, she realized it was a tiger youkai; almost the same one that she killed during their mission.
Kagome quickly halted her horse.
I thought we had killed every one of them!!? Kagome's eyes widened in shock, but quickly shook off her thoughts when she realized the youkai was about to attack someone in the same direction. She couldn't see who it was, since the big tiger youkai had covered most of the sight. She could only see some parts of the person's clothes, which had the same shade of red she saw from the road.
Without second thoughts, Kagome quickly pulled out an arrow of her quiver and drew her bow. She fired her arrow as soon as she aimed at his heart on the back of the tiger.
The arrow flew swiftly through the air and hit the tiger youkai right in the heart. Just like before, the arrow spun and bore right through the youkai's chest and hit the tree.
Kagome saw that the youkai had stopped. And she concluded that nobody was hurt,
since there were no cries.
Kagome sighed relieved. Pfew...made it just in time... she thought as
she lowered her bow to her lap.
She didn't realize before but Kagome realized there were two more persons present in the same clearing.
"Are you okay??" Kagome heard them cry out as they ran to the person, who was sitting on the grass in front of the frozen tiger. [AN: The tiger's back is facing Kagome.]
A-are they human?? Kagome wondered in puzzlement, since they both looked like humans. She looked more carefully and began to doubt the possibility that they were humans.
One of them had black eyes and black hair tied in a very long braid reaching
down his waist. A purple cross-shaped mark could be seen on his forehead.
He was dressed in some fairly rich clothes: a white haori with a blue dragon-shaped
figure embedded on the left shoulder and a white hakama. He wore armor over
his haori that covered most of his chest, a small part of his lower body and
his left shoulder with a single shoulder guard. The armor is mostly light purple
and a red sash is tied around his armor by his waist, of which the ends are
hanging lose down his knees.
The end of his sleeves and bottom of his pant legs weren't loose around his
wrists and ankles. His sleeves were wrapped inside the gray guards that he's
wearing on his arms, which covered his whole lower arms from the back of his
hands to somewhere near his elbows. The bottom of his pant legs were wrapped
inside a pair of gray boots that reached halfway up his upper legs.
The most eye-catching thing was the huge halberd that he was carrying. The youkai
was holding it by the lower part of its grip and the upper part was practically
resting on his shoulder as if it wasn't heavy at all; the part that could cut
was way above his head, pointing diagonally at the sky as he ran towards the
third person.
The other one had slit brown eyes, thin eyebrows, a high forehead, pointed
ears and black hair in a very long thin braided ponytail to his waist.
He was wearing a white sleeveless haori with a black figure embedded on the
left side and a pair of black pants below. He wears brown colored armor over
his haori and arm- and shoulder guards on both his shoulders and arms. The shoulder
guards are red and attached to his shoulder with two blue sashes, which are
wounded all over his chest and tied around his waist.
The red part of the arm guards covered his whole lower arms, from the back of
his hands to his elbows. And the part covering the topsides of his upper arms
are gray colored.
This one was armed with a long spear in his one hand.
The tiger youkai finally collapsed to the ground as soon as they both knelt down.
The third person was revealed.
Kagome's eyes widened in shock as she saw third person. The person had turned
the back of his head to Kagome and was obviously watching the arrow that she
had fired.
The third person had long silver hair with a pair of white dog-ears on each
side of his head. He was wearing a red shirt made of fire rat's fur. And below,
he was wearing a red hakama of which the bottom of the pant legs was tied to
his ankles.
"What happened?" Kagome heard the other two ask in unison.
The silver haired person turned his head to the other two and said something.
Kagome could now see the side of his face.
Kagome was watching them silently and secretly until her horse gave away her
presence by neighing. The three figures quickly looked in her direction.
Kagome widened her eyes even more when she saw the whole face of the silver haired person.
S-Sesshoumaru...!?!
~*~*~*~*~ About 1 hour ago ~*~*~*~*~
"Just leave us alone, will you?!" one of the three youkai cried out
angrily.
They were walking through the forest peacefully until they were suddenly surprised
by this tiger youkai who came running from behind the trees and attacked the
leader of their mercenary group, only crying frustratingly the same words over
and over again: "You!! You massacred our whole gang!! Die! You bastard!!"
The tiger youkai was clearly injured by something or someone before. His nose
was wounded, his eyes were slightly injured and his garments and armor were
stained with dried blood.
"Hehehe..." the tiger youkai smirked. "I won't leave until I've avenged my brothers and fellows..."
"I really don't know what you're talking about!" he yelled as he unsheathed his blade. "But I guess I'll have to beat you up first before you'll listen to us and come to reason." he growled as he turned the blade into a huge fang.
"Yo Inuyasha! You really thinking about fighting him?" the youkai, who stood next to the first one, asked worriedly.
"Shut up Bankotsu! Can't you see he's preparing for battle??" the third one spoke.
They were all standing in a small clearing. The tiger youkai on the one side and the three other young youkai on the other.
"I'm just going to shut him up and then we can continue our journey, okay?!" Inuyasha cried out before he lunged forward to the tiger youkai with his blade.
After fighting a while, Inuyasha and the rest realized that Inuyasha alone cannot defeat the tiger youkai and soon they all three fought against it.
~*~*~*~*~
[AN: You might be wondering why the tiger youkai didn't realize it wasn't Sesshoumaru,
well, it's because his nose and eyes are injured during the battle with Sesshoumaru's
group.]
*Huff puff puff...* Inuyasha panted heavily. "Dammit! Why won't you just
die!" he yelled angrily.
Bankotsu and Hiten were also tired and both leaned on their weapons , which were stabbed in the earth, panting; at a distance from Inuyasha.
The tiger youkai was also panting, but not as heavy as them. A couple of fresh cuts could be seen on his body, but he's not seriously wounded.
[AN: Meaning that Bankotsu, Hiten and Inuyasha together are just a bit above the level of the tiger youkai. An enraged and injured (in a berserk state) youkai is far more powerful than one at a normal state, you know? ^-^.]
The tiger smirked. "I told you so...*pant pant* ...I won't die before taking you with me..."
It was obvious that the tiger was only aiming for Inuyasha, since he had only been attacking him for the past hour. As for Bankotsu and Hiten, the tiger youkai had been dodging their attacks and smashing them aside most of the time.
Suddenly the tiger youkai surprised Inuyasha by lunging forward at him with
his claw first. Inuyasha realized it too late and wasn't able to dodge the sudden
attack.
In a split second, Inuyasha was thrown against a tree with great force, causing
him to collapse to the grass. Blood came out of the corner of Inuyasha's mouth
as he groaned of the pain. He was paralyzed by the shock for a moment, when
he looked up again; he saw that the youkai was dashing towards him again.
Bankotsu and Hiten began to make their way towards Inuyasha and ran as fast as they could. But they knew they wouldn't make it in time to save him from the tiger youkai. "Dammit!" they cursed at the same time.
Inuyasha cursed in his mind as he shifted his annoyed look from the tiger youkai to his friends. Chikusho!! I told you we should have taken the right turn...
Suddenly, a swift sound could be heard, followed by the sound of something hitting wood.
*SSHHFFFFFFFF*...............*TJOCK*
When nothing came, Inuyasha looked up at the tiger youkai again. His eyes widened.
His claw was only an inch away from Inuyasha's chest but the youkai wasn't moving anymore.
What the hell?! Inuyasha thought surprised.
The youkai had stopped in the middle of the attack and only stood there in front
of Inuyasha, who was still sitting on the grass.
Bankotsu and Hiten had stopped running towards Inuyasha when they saw the frozen youkai.
*drip drip*
Inuyasha's thoughts were cut off by the dripping sound. His eyes caught the red stain on the tiger's chest.
It was blood.
A wound?? Who...?? What__? Inuyasha pondered until an idea came into his mind. He quickly jerked his head to the tree behind him and as soon as he turned around, his question was answered.
An arrow, stained with blood, was resting against the tree with its arrowhead inside the tree stump. Small drops of blood were dripping off the cross-shaped feathered tail onto the grass behind Inuyasha.
An arrow?!? W-who... Inuyasha was shocked and could only stare at the arrow that saved his life.
"Are you okay??" Bankotsu and Hiten cried out as they approached Inuyasha.
They knelt down next to him. "What happened?" they asked in unison. At the same time, the tiger youkai collapsed to the grass, dead.
"I don't know." Inuyasha replied, finally taking his eyes off the arrow and turning to his friends. "I thought I was a goner for a moment, but this arrow saved me__"
Their attention were immediately drawn by a sudden neigh of a horse and they jerked their heads into the direction of the sound. Only to see a horse with a person sitting on it.
Inuyasha widened his eyes in shock when he shifted his gaze from the horse to the person who sat on it.
S-Sesshoumaru...!?!
Vocabulary:
Kitsune: fox
Kawaii: cute
Chikusho: Damn
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
EXPLANATIONS OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS CHAPTER:
Inuyasha:
Sesshoumaru's half brother; same father, different mother. Unlike Sesshoumaru,
who's a full-blooded youkai, he's a hanyou (half demon, half human). Sesshoumaru
had always disliked the fact that his father remarried after his mother died,
he even more disliked it when he found out she was human. That's why he didn't
want to mention about Inuyasha a couple of chapters ago.
Inuyasha is 5 years younger than Sesshoumaru, which makes him 20 years old.
He's a very caring hanyou with a good heart and he's willing to give his life
to a person he wants to protect.
On the other hand, he's quite reckless, stubborn and doesn't like to be ordered
around. You can say he's the leader of his "group" mercenaries, consisting
of Bankotsu and Hiten. But they are in fact good friends and they rather treat
each other equally.
Inuyasha carries a fang (sword) called Tetsusaiga that he got from his father.
Tetsusaiga looks like a broken blade at first when unsheathed, but whenever
Inuyasha wants to protect someone with it, youkai or human, it will turn into
a huge and powerful fang. Inuyasha can also fight with his claws.
Bankotsu:
A youkai who uses a great halberd to fight. Bankotsu can summon the power of
lightning. Bankotsu looks like a human, that's why he was also picked on by
youkai very often when he was young and that's how he got to know Inuyasha,
since he's was also a bit of an outcast among the youkai.
They first challenged each other to see who was stronger, but they became good
friends after it ended in a draw.
Bankotsu is not an evil youkai, he's only cruel and heartless to people or youkai,
who deserves to be killed. He's smart and considerate and does most of the thinking
of the three. Bankotsu is 21 years old
Hiten:
Also a youkai, who fights with his spear embedded with the power of lightning.
This youkai also looks like a human. At first, he hated himself for looking
like a human; he didn't understand why a full-blooded youkai could look like
a human. But when he met Bankotsu and Inuyasha and saw that both of them could
be strong too, in spite of the fact that they were cast out of the youkai society,
he changed his way of thinking and became friends with them.
Hiten is quite reckless when it comes to battles, but he's not evil. He's also
very arrogant and likes to show off in front of girls. Hiten is 20 years old,
just like Inuyasha.
Three of them decided to become mercenaries together and travel across the Western Lands to search for all kinds of adventures.
[AN: I have decided to put the explanations about characters at the end instead
of the beginning of a chapter, in order not to reveal about the characters of
this chapter too soon ^-^!!]
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Posted: 16 August 2003
Last Edited: 12 February 2004 (re-edited because of tags problem)
Spelling check: YES