The Meeting
~@ One Week Later @~
The new Demon Lord of the South Lands walked up the dirt path to a mighty and splendid castle located in the East Lands. At the end of the path, in front of the castle's large oak doors, stood a handsome kitsune. He had long raven black hair, bright blue eyes, and he gave off a gentle aura unless you pissed him off, of course, in which case he was a battle-hardened warrior. This was the Demon Lord of these lands.
Senrei stood before him, gazing into his eyes unflinchingly. He stared back until finally he smirked and opened his arms to her.
"Come give your Uncle Akugi a hug, little tigress," he greeted.
She rolled her silver-colored eyes but gave in and hugged her kitsune friend. The tigress pulled back a second later.
"It is nice to see you, Akugi, but I do not think this is a time I can be very joyful. My father has died, and I can never be the same girl you knew. I am a Youkai Lord now. One of your equals but I will always be your friend," Senrei stated in a far colder voice than the kitsune ever remembered.
"You really have changed Senrei," he replied. "I'm sorry about Mouko."
"There was nothing you could do. He was already dying when I found him," she replied sharply as they went through the doors and started walking along one of the great corridors.
"Who killed him?"
The two Demon Lords suddenly turned to the right when they reached the end of the hall, both clearly knowing where they were going. "I don't know. I never asked Otousan before he . . . " she cut off and looked away from Akugi.
The kitsune moved his hand to her shoulder, but she shrugged it off. Senrei stopped walking. He thought that she was going to break down in tears, but her expression suddenly became cold, determined. "Before he died," she finished in louder tones. "Are the other Lords here already?"
"Yes."
She started walking again until she reached a door and stopped again with Akugi next to her. "What are the other two like?"
"Backgrounds for your challenge right?" he asked.
"Yes, Akugi," Senrei answered quickly.
"Okay, does that mean you're not going to challenge me?"
"Why would I challenge you, Akugi? You already know what I am capable of. I want to show the rest of them my power. I want them to know that I am their equal and not some novice demoness not worthy of her birthright."
"Of course. All right. The North Demon Lord's name is Dokuga. He's a green snake demon and not a very nice one. I believe he likes to kill humans. He has one heir. The kid's a real pain in the tail. And as for the "Old Westy", his name's Sesshoumaru. He's a white dog demon. I swear this guy has no emotions. He never laughs or smiles, and, don't tell him I said this, but he looks a lot like a girl. He doesn't have any heir that I know of."
"Speaking of heirs, Akugi, how's your son?"
"Oh. Jaki's fine. He missed you. Uh . . . let's go in and get this over with, okay?"
Senrei took a deep breath and nodded as she opened the door leading to the meeting room. She had never dreamed she would be doing this so soon. A week ago she had been a kid, really, with little in the world to care about except being such. Now her Otousan was dead, just like her Okaasan, and she had to take his place. For Kami-sama's sake, she couldn't even avenge her father's murder, but she could honor him by being a good ruler.
As Senrei opened the door, she immediately spotted the other Demon Lords. Well, it wasn't like they were easy to miss. Senrei kept her pace even as she strode in with Akugi and took the South chair at the far end of the table where he father had once sat The East Demon Lord also took his seat. The tigress felt three sets of eyes on her as she closed hers and took a deep breath. She looked up and ran her silver gaze over the Lords she was not acquainted with.
Both of them were rather handsome. Dokuga had long emerald hair, a medium build, sharp claws like her own, and Senrei was sure that if he opened his mouth that he would have retractable snake fangs there. He also had small patches of green scales on the parts of his body she could see and probably on the parts she couldn't. This snake was a very impressive demon and would seem to be a good catch to most demonesses, but when she looked into his black eyes she realized that his soul was most definitely not as good as his looks. Senrei pulled her lip back slightly in disgust as he smirked at her. She turned to the second Lord.
Akugi was right. Sesshoumaru looked like a girl. Although, he was cute in a way. Long white hair, amber eyes, tall, and well-built, nice as dogs go. But there was a feminine sense to him. Maybe it was the slight glow of his lips or the shadowing over his eyes. It might even have been his fluffy tail. Yeah, it was probably that. The strange thing was that as he looked at her, his expression was neutral. It really didn't seem like he had emotions. He just gazed at her with those piercing golden eyes. She suddenly felt a twinge in her head and quickly raised a hand to her head.
"Are you all right, Senrei?" Akugi asked.
"Yeah," she answered.
"Have a headache, tigress?" Dokuga questioned in a voice that elongated his s'.
"Not really, snake," she retorted while she cleared her mind of one of her father's memories and removed her hand. That had been happening a lot lately. "Are we starting then?"
"I'm ready," the serpent declared.
"As am I," Akugi added.
Sesshoumaru nodded.
"As we all know," the kitsune began, "Mouko is dead and Senrei is his heir. It is her right to try for his position. In other words, she must challenge one of us and defeat us to prove herself. If Senrei fails, she will be killed by the victor and a replacement will be found. Does everyone understand? Senrei?"
The three Youkai Lords nodded, and the tigress stood up.
"As Mouko's heir, I challenge the Demon Lord of the . . . " she paused, "West Lands for my birthright."
The chosen Lord's face did not change in any way with this statement. He just looked at her.
"Do you accept Sesshoumaru?" the fox inquired.
"Yeah, dog, are you brave enough to take on this woman?" Dokuga sneered.
Senrei shot him a dark glare and bared her fangs before she heard "Yes."
That was unexpected. Senrei had thought that Sesshoumaru would have had a more girlish voice, but damn her if that wasn't one of the most masculine sounds she had ever heard in her life. The inu-youkai stood up also so that they were now eye to eye.
"All right, then let's go outside," Akugi stated.
"This should be fun," Dokuga said as he and the East Demon Lord stood, and they all started walking toward the exit.
The group of Youkai Lords left the castle and strolled out onto the expansive grounds with Sesshoumaru and Senrei keeping far away from each other until they halted. The Demon Lords of the West and South lands paired off as the other two stayed behind. Soon they stood ten feet away from each other on the whistling grass.
Sesshoumaru looked Senrei over again as they waited for the command to start. She was quite beautiful, he thought. She had long silver hair that was pulled into two buns of the center of her head although most of it still trailed down her back. Her eyes were the same piercing color as her hair. The kimono she wore was a similar make to his, but it was silver and blue with black stripes. She also wore a small sheath at her side that was only large enough to hold a dagger, but the handle at the top was for a katana. That was strange. Senrei was quite like what one would expect off her kind. Except she possessed a colder expression.
"Sesshoumaru? Senrei? Are you ready?" the kitsune asked.
"Yes," they both replied.
"Okay, the rules are simple. You may use any weapon you have at this present time, and you are not allowed to change to your demon form. Now, start!"
Both of the fighting demons took off. They speed toward each other at matched speeds. Senrei suddenly stopped and leaned back swiftly in a bridge position as he took a swing at where here face had been. She then pushed her feet off the ground and delivered the force to his stomach. He stooped as she flipped backwards onto her feet. Sesshoumaru quickly figured out that he wouldn't have a speed advantage here and quickly brought his glowing figures up. He flicked out his light whip at her. Senrei gasped. She hadn't expected this, and therefore, she couldn't block it. The whip struck her shoulder and she cried out. That whip burned like hell fire. Sesshoumaru brought the whip at her again. She brought her arms up to block the rest of her body. The whip struck her arms twice, burning fiercely, before she was knocked to the ground. It came at her again while she was on the ground, and she rolled out of the way. Senrei leapt to her feet and started to dodge Sesshoumaru's weapon as she pulled out her katana-handled dagger. She brought it up as the whip flew again. Suddenly silver light surrounded the weapon and it lengthened until it became a katana. The tigress easily blocked the whip now. Sesshoumaru's eyes widened. She had a fang too?
Off to the side of the battle Akugi had his jaw clenched. He hoped Senrei could beat Sesshoumaru, and when she drew her sword and blocked his attack, he was sure she had a fair chance of defeating the dog.
"There are definitely times when I love this sword," she stated.
Senrei charged him all of a sudden as he withdrew his whip and dodged her. She saw him move and sheathed her sword keeping up her speed. As he ran out of the way she jumped into the air and pulled objects out of the bag on the back of her waist.
"Inu," Senrei whispered while she launched two of them at his legs.
The result was instant. Sesshoumaru's legs stopped moving against his will and he tripped and face-planted into the ground. He swiftly flipped himself around as he tried to move the legs that weren't responding. In the next moment three things occurred. Sesshoumaru realized that there were sealing ofuda on both of his legs, Senrei threw two more ofuda at his arms, and he found that now his arms wouldn't respond to his will. Then, the silver tigress was suddenly hovering over him with her katana pressed against his throat. Sesshoumaru had never felt so vulnerable in his life.
"You are defeated, Sesshoumaru," Senrei whispered as she raised herself and yelled at Akugi. "I have won the challenge!"
The fox openly cheered while Dokuga sneered and glared at her.
"Release me, demoness," Sesshoumaru demanded forcefully.
She looked down at him and the smile that had graced her face vanished at his hateful expression. Senrei snapped her fingers; the ofuda crumbled into useless bits of paper.
"This wasn't personal, Sesshoumaru," she said.
He continued his glare as he stood up slowly. The demon was a few inches taller than she so she had to look up slightly to keep eye contact. "I am clear on that," he replied in a cold tone.
She shivered as looking into his eyes brought on another of her father's memories. In her mind's eye she clearly saw Sesshoumaru murdering a group of humans as they cowered before him. Senrei shook her head and backed up a step. The tigress was utterly disgusted. In her family it was unheard of to ever kill a human. Humans held a lot of fear, and in their opinion it didn't need to be added to. He hated them. No, he despised them.
His glare was suddenly returned with full force. "I have more reason to hate you apparently than you ever did," she snarled before she turned away from him and briskly walked toward Akugi. Her expression quickly changed to a happy one as she reached her adopted uncle and gave him a long hug.
"Well-done Senrei. I knew you could do it," the kitsune complemented as he held her away from him. They both smiled as Dokuga glared daggers at them. Suddenly Senrei felt something with her heart. It was a beat, a pulse. It was the sound of another heart. It was Akugi's heartbeat. Then she felt two other heartbeats. It had to be Dokuga's and Sesshoumaru's. This was the connection of the Demon Lords. They could always feel each other's hearts. She had finally done it. She had finished her task. If he Otousan was alive Senrei was sure he would be pleased.
Meanwhile Sesshoumaru was a bit confused. Why did this girl suddenly hate him? How did she suddenly have more reason? This demoness was very strange indeed. She had humiliated him and yet she hated him. He watched Akugi and her walk off. Dokuga soon followed, but still he stood there with the wind ruffling his clothes and hair thinking about a strong, cold tigress.
Author's Note: Hi! I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Arigato to everyone that reviewed me already, and I hope that you'll review this too. As for the next chapter, I believe that I'll be naming it "A Betrayal and a Battle".
