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
*...* : noises
-by Kittymui-
Some time ago...
-- Somewhere far away, deep in a forest --
It was evening and the sun had already set. The lonely moon, which was not perfectly
full, was adding a bright pale hue to the dark forest from above.
A lonely castle stood in the middle of the forest; its protective stone walls
rising up above the trees.
Sesshoumaru was standing on one of the high walls and staring at the silent
landscape.
"Something is not right..." he mumbled as he continued to scan the landscape in front of him.
Soft breezes lifted his long silver hair as Kouga walked out from one of the towers to his side.
"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing Sesshoumaru's troubled expression.
Sesshoumaru turned to Kouga. "Kouga...how long has it been since our successful takeover of this stronghold?" he inquired.
Kouga thought for a while before he replied. "About 3 months now."
Sesshoumaru frowned at the answer and turned to the forest again. "The mission said to defend the stronghold until the Imperial Army arrives, but it is taking too long..." he said with a serious tone.
"Do you think..." Kouga asked but not finishing his sentence since he wasn't too sure about it. But Sesshoumaru knew what he was about to say and cut him off.
"There are two possibilities. One is that the Imperial Army is delayed by something and the other..." he took a short pause. "...is that we have completely fallen into a trap..."
Kouga widened his eyes. "A trap?! B-but why...why would they trick us?" he asked bewildered.
"Because we are youkai...and quite powerful ones, at least that's what I believe to be the reason." Sesshoumaru replied.
"W-what do we do now?"
"Either way, it would not be safe if we stayed here any longer. Get Kyoukotsu and Renkotsu to prepare themselves for departure and warn the rest about this." he ordered.
Kouga nodded and went into the tower again.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. What the hell are you scheming...Naraku...
~*~*~*~
Kyoukotsu, Renkotsu and Kouga were prepared and standing at the huge gate of
the castle.
"Where is the rest?" Sesshoumaru inquired as he walked to his companions.
"They didn't believe us about this mission being a trap and they decided to stay." Renkotsu replied, slightly disappointed.
Sesshoumaru frowned. "Orokamono..." he growled. "I, Sesshoumaru,
will not wait for my death here. Let us leave before anything bad happens."
With that, Sesshoumaru walked past them and out of the gate.
The rest followed him without questioning him; they trusted their leader's intuition,
since it had never been wrong.
~*~ *~*~*~
Sesshoumaru and the rest were walking in the forest until Sesshoumaru suddenly
froze.
"What's wrong?" Kyoukotsu asked cautiously.
"Someone is here..." he replied as he grabbed the hilt of his Toukijin.
"S-Sesshoumaru..." a hoarse voice sounded from the bushes.
Everyone tensed at the voice and turned to where it came from, only to see a figure coming out of the bushes and collapse to the grass.
"Kouga." Sesshoumaru called his companion's name.
Kouga nodded and approached the collapsed figure.
He quickly turned to Sesshoumaru. "Sesshoumaru-sama, it's Tigre, the leader
of the other mercenary group!!" he said shocked.
Sesshoumaru approached the tiger youkai and scanned his body. His armor was broken and several gashed could be seen on his arms and legs.
"You are wounded. What happened?" he asked with a calm voice.
Kouga helped Tigre to a sitting position and supported his back with his knee. He took a shoot out of his baggage and let him drank some water.
"Y-you...you were right..." he groaned after resting a short moment. "...i-it was a trap..."
Sesshoumaru's ears twitched slightly.
"We were unprepared...the most of us were asleep." he continued. "The bastards caught us completely off guard." He slammed his fist on the floor. "Chikusho!! T-they framed us...!! How dare they!!" he cursed.
Sesshoumaru and the rest moved closer to listen.
"Please explain." Sesshoumaru inquired.
Tigre closed his eyes to recall what had happened 2 hours ago.
"It was a massacre...I overheard the officers while I was hidden under several corpses."
[FLASHBACK]
The scent of blood filled the air as silent breezes entered the courtyard. Lots
of dead bodies were lying on the floor. Corpses of human as well as youkai filled
the courtyard, not leaving a single spot uncovered.
An officer appeared from the gates with a shorter one walking next to him. The officer had short brown curly hair and was dressed in a dark blue formal suit with golden buttons. A long black cape was attached to both his shoulders and it danced in the soft breezes.
He had a calm look on his face while the other one next to him was pale at the sight of the bloody scene. The shorter one was dressed in the same kind of clothes, only dark green instead of dark blue.
A soldier appeared from behind them and knelt down.
"What's the situation?" the taller officer inquired.
"Sir, according to our men, no youkai survived the surprise attack." the soldier reported. "However..."
The officer turned around to face the soldier. "What?"
"There seem to be some youkai missing, sir!"
The officer frowned. "That will not be our concern. You're dismissed." he ordered nonchalantly.
"Hai!" With that the soldier left the two officers behind again.
"Euhm...sir?" the shorter officer suddenly began.
The taller one was still gazing at where the soldier disappeared to. "What?"
"H-how are we supposed to report about this mess? I mean...wasn't the Imperial Army supposed to assist the mercenaries by taking over the stronghold for them? W-why were we sent to do it?" the officer gulped. "Why did the mission change from assist to..."
His voice gradually faltered as the taller officer turned to him with a strict expression.
"I'm only explaining this once and only to you so I trust you that there will be no other knowing about this." he finally spoke after a short moment of silence.
The shorter officer nodded and listened carefully.
"First of all, this will not be reported as a sudden attack but as an act out of defense." he explained calmly. "We'll say that the youkai didn't want to hand over the stronghold and launched an attack first. So this massacre..." he snickered. "...is the result of the counterattack."
"And secondly, you're right about us doing the job instead of the Imperial Army. They gave us the mission because the Army was needed elsewhere. This mission was originally planned to gather and eliminate mercenaries who would become possible threats because of their increasing popularity and wealth." he continued as his lips curled up into a grin. "I guess they don't need and army as powerful as the Imperial one to do this job."
"Ah...now I understand sir." the shorter officer nodded. "Don't worry sir, there will be no third person to know about this."
[END FLASHBACK]
Sesshoumaru frowned at hearing Tigre's story. Those bastards...treating us
like dirt huh? Use us and get rid of us when they realize our power...
he growled inwardly. He silently thought for a moment. The Imperial Army
was needed elsewhere? What could be more important than eliminating a possible
threat to the kingdom? he mused.
"Where was the Imperial Army needed?" he asked the wounded Tigre after a moment of silence.
"I faintly heard them mention a raid planned by an army of the East." he replied with a cough.
"Doko?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"I don't remember the name anymore but I recall it was one of the most wealthiest city in the Western Lands."
Sesshoumaru widened his eyes.
Renkotsu, Kyoukotsu and Kouga immediately turned to their leader.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, you don't think it's__" Kouga began.
"I'm afraid there is no other city in this part of the Western Lands." Renkotsu cut him off.
"You'll have to hurry if someone dear to you lives there. The raid would probably be held in one of these days..." Tigre suddenly spoke.
"What about you?" Kyoukotsu asked worriedly.
"I'll be fine, I won't be killed by a couple of scratches." he replied reassuringly. "Now go, don't worry about me."
Sesshoumaru nodded. "Take care my friend. Till we meet again." he said before he stood up.
"Let us go." Sesshoumaru ordered with a calm voice before he dashed into the direction of Mayr, and the rest followed.
Damn it! Kagome...please be okay... he thought worriedly as he increased his speed.
I should not worry too much...Inuyasha is with her...but...why am I having this uneasy feeling? he wondered slightly disturbed.
[AN: In case you are frustrated about the timelines, this happened in the month
when Kagome was all alone in Mayr. Here is a little help:
Sess's depart ----5 months----victory------3 months------Chp.18---...(Sesshoumaru)
.....................---------- 6 months ----------Inu's depart-----1
month-----Chp.15+16-Chp.17---...(Kagome)
I hope it's not too complicated ^-^.]
Vocabulary:
Orokamono: Fool(s)
Toukijin is Sesshoumaru's sword
Chikusho: Damn/Shit
Doko?: Where?
Posted: 7 October 2003
Last Edited: 12 February 2004 (re-edited because of tag problems)
Spelling check: YES