Disclaimer: The characters of InuYasha do not belong to me.
Strange Interlude
Chapter 19
"Ah...yes...here it is. The miasma is overpowering now. Foolish half demon," thought Sesshomaru, "He thinks he could fool me with the dilution technique. It almost worked, but he left too many clues. Naraku did not anticipate anyone seeing through his secrecy. Sneaking in and out of the Western Lands by hiding among the human villages, expecting that I would not dare look there. It was in those places that he left his tell, the signs of his undoing. His aura clung too thickly to those places. In the human village it seemed that Naraku had not yet learned scent dilution, which must mean that he has learned it just recently.
"Perhaps the bird held the clue. The smell around the mountain was definitely that of Naraku......unless it was not he, but a puppet. But that smell of bird..." he wondered, "...perhaps not a puppet, but an incarnation..."
Sesshomaru nodded. He now understood Naraku's plan. He must have acquired a jewel shard from the village of old smells and set the demon from there.
"What a foul manner of trickery," he thought. "But...the addition of one jewel shard should not have increased his power by that much...his avian incarnation, if it was one, should have been very weak. And if my deduction were true, then how could it have pierced that hologram and stolen the girl? A weak, false demon like that, even she could not be taken..."
But no, he was giving her more credit than she deserved. Any demon with enough brains could make off with a human girl of that age...
Sesshomaru then arrived to his destination. The elusive stronghold of the Castle Naraku stood before him shrouded in the evening fog. There were two humans guarding the high gate to the mansion. On this cold autumn night, the two stood in a frigid silence, not taking notice of the man in white.
Sesshomaru walked forward, coming through the dense fog toward the human watchmen.
"Halt! Who goes there?" shouted one of them, tensing his shoulders and tightening his grasp on the spear in his hands.
Sesshomaru continued to walk forward. The large guard stepped forward and threatened Sesshomaru's continuation with his spear.
"I said 'HALT'!" he shouted.
Sesshomaru stopped. One razor-sharp glance of Sesshomaru's piercing amber eyes caused the human to shiver.
"I mean it!" he shouted, "This castle houses our sick, young lord; he cannot be disturbed."
The towering demon lord rolled his eyes and with one light push, knocked over the beefy watchman with relative ease.
The other, much smaller guard faltered. He looked as if he was struggling within himself whether to take on the demon or run to the aid of his friend. Sesshomaru shot another piercing glance as if asking the human, "You dare to get in my way as well?"
The small man swallowed the lump in his throat and dropped his weapon, rushing to the slumped form of his colleague. Sesshomaru merely walked on. He had no time for these human disturbances. As he stepped foot into the mansion's exterior courtyard, Sesshomaru noticed a thickening of the faint smog hanging in the air. At once the dog demon's nose recognized the purple haze as Naraku's trademark miasma. Although this miasma contained numerous airborne poisons, Sesshomaru could not feel their venomous attacks against his lungs. A smaller demon or human probably would have crumpled to the ground in the vapors, but not he.
Which reminded him. If the kidnapped girl were truly here, then surely she would be suffering in the poison. This thought alarmed Sesshomaru so much that he allowed his left eyebrow to twitch in concern.
Sesshomaru broke into a sprint through the many gates of Naraku's venerated castle. As expected, the part-demon had more human guards in order to slow Sesshomaru's pursuit. The heavily armored warriors charged out of the doors toward the white demon. Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed and his temper rose. He continued to run, slicing through the legions of heavily breathing humans, ending any hope of their continued life by decapitating them with his light whip.
But still more came. Fifty, one hundred more flooded the multiple courtyards, but Sesshomaru easily struck them down. So easily perhaps because Naraku's miasma had slowly eaten away at the health of their respiratory systems, but was most likely because no one could match Sesshomaru's speed or strength.
Having ended the lives of a few more hapless humans, Sesshomaru approached the castle's sliding front doors and opened them. The halls were eerily quiet. Naraku's fog hung thick in the air and Sesshomaru found it more and more difficult to maintain his slow and deliberate breaths. He moved slowly through the dim hallways straining his senses for any sign of the girl he sought.
Sesshomaru heard his own footsteps echo through the halls. It appeared as if he were the only one in the entire castle. Had they already fled? The only time Naraku could have has the chance to flee this dark and lonely castle was when Sesshomaru had been dealing the "human disturbances".
Idiot. Those dying humans were not protection; they were a diversion. Why else would he send them? Naraku, even with all his foolery, surely knew the overwhelming strength of his adversary. But Sesshomaru often was too full of himself, as he then remembered that Naraku could not be so much a fool to be able to steal from the regal and proud lord. Just as this thought crossed Sesshomaru's mind, a child's playful laugh broke the mansion's silence.
Sesshomaru snapped his head in the direction of the sound. He saw a small shadow dance against the wall and move quickly around the corner. Sesshomaru in pure curiosity turned toward the foggy foyer of skipping shadows, and began to walk down it. He could not feel any malicious air about the shadow; in fact, there was a strange familiarity to the little child's laugh.
Turning the corner, he spotted the person to whom the shadow belonged dart around another bend, giggling all the way.
Sesshomaru followed the figure around the next corner into a new hall. At the end of the hall stood the little child. Several lamps stood in this hall and shone their flickering light on the child's back. Sesshomaru tilted his head in order to peer at the strange girl. With a whirl, she turned to face him and he gazed fully upon her face. Immediately he noticed her brown eyes, bright and sunny. He noticed their roundness and the also roundness of her face. The rare curls she sported hung neatly along the side of her freckled face. Even the little dress she wore was strange. Small finger-width straps held the bright pink knee-length dress, white lilies adorning the skirt—something Sesshomaru had never seen. The girl was foreign—not of this land. Who was this girl that Naraku had? What plan had he for this child whose smile stretched wider than that of a normal human?
After a few moments' silence she spoke, "Isn't it a pretty day, uncle?"
But Sesshomaru did not understand her words; it was as if she spoke in a different tongue.
"Sorry, but I got the dress you gave me a little dirty when I was playing." She lifted the grass-stained hem of her dress up to show him, revealing to him her little strawberry-adorned panties.
A few more seconds passed and after receiving no response at all from her 'uncle' she lowered her skirt and pouted.
"But I don't want to go inside," she said stamping her feet and balling her hands into fists.
Sesshomaru peered down at the little girl. Something about her eyes...
"I'm not coming," she shouted defiantly, folding her arms across her chest and turning away from Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru, unusually curious about the little child, knelt down and lightly grabbed her chin, lifting it towards him. The girl slightly opened one of her eyes to return her uncle's stare. In that one brown eye, Sesshomaru a glimpse of the hollow emptiness within her. The round eye was empty. This being was not real.
In the one second he had inspected the child's face, the girl had shut her eye and tossed her head out of Sesshomaru's grasp, returning to her pouting stance.
"What are you?" Sesshomaru asked, actually speaking to the creature for the first time.
"I'm a 'who', not a 'what', stupid!" she said suddenly, again turning away.
The first sentence of hers he understood and this little ghost (for lack of knowing what she truly was) had the gall to insult him. He raised his hand to strike her and she immediately flinched, pulling her arms in front of her face.
"No! Don't hurt me!" she exclaimed, returning to the unknown language. Sesshomaru raised a questioning eyebrow at the strange being and slowly lowered his arm. He lightly shook his head. Best to continue on his way and leave this curious thing be. He stood and thought of where Naraku could hide. The sobbing girl stopped in order to watch the beautiful man turn around the corner into the next hall.
The girl's frustrated eyes softened to that of extreme sad and loneliness.
"That's okay," she murmured quietly, "no one ever really pays attention to me anyway."
And with that, the child's figure became translucent. An invisible wind rose up and blew her form away, letting the crudely craved wooden golem to drop to the floor. Wrapped around it was a single strand of twisted black hair. Then, the golem, much like the girl, became dust and blew away.
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A/N: Ah, another chapter for my much deserving audience.
Fully consisting of four people.
Yes...only four...
Le sigh...Where have all my old reviewers gone? France is in the military. Where are my great friends whitewings, Oh My Blush!, and Sharpsnout?
Sniff...
Thank you so much Kimiki and Kiara32. I love you both muy hen3 duo1 (more Chinglish/Spanglish) . You two should read each other's fics. Both of you all are great friends and authors. And any other non-reviewing wandering eye should read them too.
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