Chapter 3
Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed as he studied the newcomer. It was a type of demon he had never encountered before, but it appeared relatively weak. True, he hadn't even smelled its approach, but could such an insignificant-looking demon such as this capture Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands?
Yukari crouched into a fighter's stance. She studied the demon carefully. It had shiny green-grey skin and a tall, slender, fragile-looking body. It had skinny arms that ended long hands tipped with shiny silver claws. Its tail was also tipped with a shiny silver claw. She noticed four knobs on the demon's back, reminding her of folded wings.
What the hell is this thing? she wondered. She sent a small thread of her power out to test the demon's aura: her infallible instincts told her that this was a mira youkai, a mirror demon. Her eyes widened as she instinctively backed away. Mira youkai were very dangerous creatures, although they appeared relatively weak. Yukari's mind raced as she struggled to remember anything she had ever learned about this type of demon. The knobs on its back aren't wings, she remembered. They're poisonous, claw-tipped appendages. But what kind of poison is it? She couldn't remember. The voice of her miko teachers at the village temple came back to her. The tail of a mirror demon can shoot sharp barbs at its enemies, and mirror demons can appear out of nowhere and disappear without a trace. But the most dangerous thing about mira youkai is that they reflect themselves, and than you have two identically powerful demons to contend with.
We're doomed! she cried silently.
The thing that really bothers me, though, is that I can't sense this demon until it's right on me, she thought. Why can't I sense it? And why does its aura feel so familiar to me?
Yukari glanced over at Sesshomaru. His wounds appeared almost healed, but he was still chained to the wall; he would be of no use to her in a fight.
"Who are you, and why have you taken us prisoner?" she yelled, hoping she sounded braver than she felt.
Sesshomaru's eyes widened in surprise as he heard the miko yell at the demon. There's more to her than I originally imagined, he thought. He laughed silently to himself. She has hidden depths…
The youkai laughed at Yukari's brave words. "We are the Demon Hokkaido," it said. "We have taken you prisoner because it pleased us to do so."
He walked over to Sesshomaru and drew a sharp silver claw down his cheek, leaving a small scratch that began to bleed. Sesshomaru growled deep in his throat, and his eyes began to glow faintly red again.
"How could we pass up the opportunity to chain up the Lord of the Western Lands like the dog he truly is?" Hokkaido said. "You aren't as strong as your arrogance proclaims, Sesshomaru-chan!"
Yukari glanced at the demon lord, who did not return her gaze. She returned her attention to Hokkaido.
"But what about me?" she persisted. "What do you want of me?"
The mira youkai disappeared, only to reappear suddenly only inches away from Yukari. She automatically stepped backwards, but Hokkaido grabbed her face and stared deep into her eyes. As she gazed back into the youkai's reflective silver eyes, she felt herself falling into a dense fog. Through the haze she heard Hokkaido's voice whisper into her mind.
"Do you not remember us then, miko?"
*Flashback!*
Yukari walked slowly into the village square, hoping that her eyes were deceiving her. She knew that they weren't. As she walked forward she had to step over the dead bodies of the people she had known all her life. Walking closer to her home, the village temple, she could sense a demon's aura lingering in the air. When she reached the temple she fell to her knees in despair. She wept silently, and the flames from the temple were reflected in her tears as she helplessly watched her home burn…
Sesshomaru watched the girl's eyes roll back into her head as she collapsed. Hokkaido laughed uproariously and disappeared. His maniacal laughter echoed in the stone pit long after he had gone.