The demon lord sat leaning against a tree. Jaken was not yet back from his errand, leaving his master to think quietly to himself.
It was odd that Seshomaru felt something akin to respect for some humans now, though one hundred years ago it would have been impossible. It was equally odd that three of them were female, the weaker gender.
There was Sango, the demon exterminator, who wielded the Boomerang Bone, Hiraikotsu. She had even tried to use it against him before, though it would have been ineffective. Sango was one of the few humans he had known that had had a true fire and strength in her soul. She was no spineless village bride.
Also Kagome. Though she was his brother's woman, and wore the most outlandish garb he had ever seen, she was not what he had first thought her to be with her short skirt. A miko, her arrows had done much damage to formidable foes, including shattering his armor and reversing the Tetseiga.
From Kagome the lord's thoughts turned to Kikyo, her past incarnation. A miko as well, Kikyo had once guarded the Shikon no Tama, until Naraku's meddling. She had been a priestess powerful enough to seal Inuyasha, who, despite his human mother, had their father's blood in his veins.
If Sesshomaru felt respect for those three, perhaps it was love, though parental, that he felt for Rin, the human child he had revived with Tensaiga. She had been a constant sunbeam in his life, though always in his mind was the knowledge that she was not immortal. She would age and die, as all mortals one day would.
Then another image rose in the taiyoukai's mind, one of yet another female who had touched his life.
Kagura. Kagura, the demon wind sorceress, a creation of Naraku, his late enemy. At first she had been an annoyance, offering him shards in return for the death of Naraku. But she had had her own place in his heart, and, though no tear had graced his cheek, he had mourned her passing. But she had died free.
He remembered it clearly. She had betrayed Naraku, but the dark hanyou had found out. In an act of twisted cruelty, Naraku gave her her heart- only to would her badly enough that her only freedom would be in choosing the place where she would die.
Kagura had flown to an isolated field, and sat there, waiting for death. Sesshomaru had gotten the scent of Naraku's miasma, but had known that the trail would lead him, not to Naraku, but to the wind sorceress.
Seeing her dying, he had drawn Tensaiga- only to realize that, this one time, it would be useless. The one time he had needed it most of all.
She told him that she was glad to die free, and with him at her side. Then his brother and the rest had arrived, but only in time to watch Kagura die, and see her body disappear into the wind.
The demon lord was roused from his thoughts as a familiar, "Sesshomaru-sama!" rang from behind him. Turning, Sesshomaru saw Rin. Jaken had returned, and she was ready to travel.
At his word, the child skipped on ahead of him. Just for a moment, Sesshomaru looked back at the serene forest. Then a breeze that seemed to come from nowhere surrounded him, and the taiyoukai knew that the wind sorceress would never be truly gone. The wind cannot be killed.