It was a full moon on that warm dark night as Lord Sesshomaru walked alongside a small lake inside a forest with his companions, the human girl Rin, and the demon imp Jakken. He walked at a slow pace, as if he had nowhere to walk to. Truth be told, he really had no destination planned at the time being. As was usually the case, Sesshomaru was in the front (as he was the leader), while Rin and Jakken walked behind him, quarreling amongst themselves over any random thing. Behind Rin and Jakken was a large serpentine dragon-like creature with two heads. At this point Sesshomaru had tuned out anything the human or the imp was saying, and he hadn't talked himself for hours. The last time he had opened his mouth was four hours earlier when he had to tell Rin to keep up the walking pace after she had hit Jakken on the head to end one of their arguments. At last, halfway around the lakeside, the demon lord stopped, and turned around to face his young human companion.

"Rin, you should take a short break. You've been walking for hours now. Have a drink from the lake." Sesshomaru spoke without any emotion at all, but talked to Rin in the most compassionate voice an emotionless demon like him could muster. After speaking to her, he turned back around and walked a few steps, stopped again, and looked at his surroundings.

Rin happily did as she was told, and walked over to the lake. She cupped her hands together, dipped them in the lake, and brought up a small amount of water in them, drinking it. She did this a few times. Jakken, however, ran over to his master with his Staff of Heads in his hands.

"Lord Sesshomaru! Do you have any idea yet on where we are going?"

The imp demon often aggravated Sesshomaru when he asked questions like this, and didn't bother answering him this time. Jakken understood after a few seconds, and knew better than to ask again.

After he saw that Rin had plenty to drink and a few minutes to rest, he began his slow pace of walking again. Rin quickly followed, as well as Jakken after grabbing the leash to the twin-headed dragon creature they dragged along with them.

He only walked a few steps, then stopped suddenly, turning his attention to the center of the lake. A single ripple of water spread out from the middle of the lake, and then from that point a glow formed. A head slowly emerged from the water, followed by a body, and finally the legs. There was a strong demonic aura coming from this being, and much to the demon lord's dismay, it was a female.

She wore black skintight cloth from the waist down, and a black cloth shirt with elegant silver designs on it. The shirt was a bit looser, but tight enough to show her figure. It was only completely loose past her wrists, extending out from there like a priestess' robe. Attached to her back was a sheath with a sword that had a slightly curved blade, and around her waist was a small chain only big enough to make it once around. Her eyes were dark greenish-blue, and her hair was very dark blue, dark enough to mistaken for black if not looked at closely. Her hair was long at the back and tied up near her neck to make a ponytail, with her bangs just long enough to reach the eyes. For some reason, she was looked unusually dry for someone who had just emerged from a large body of water.

She floated there for a few moments, above the center of the small lake, with her feet dangling, her toes barely touching the surface. When those few moments passed, she took short, delicate steps across the surface, walking on her toes, making single tiny ripples of water every time she touched down. She slowly made her way over to Sesshomaru. She stopped at arm's length in front of him.

"The demon lord, Sesshomaru. Wow." The woman talked in a deep, seductive, and alluring voice. She stared at him for a few moments, smiling, keeping her gaze on his face for most of the time.

Sesshomaru stood there for a moment, looking back at her, eventually replying: "Yes…what is it that want from me?" He talked back to her in the same emotionless way he always did, keeping a still face the whole time, and not moving a muscle in his body.

The woman kept looking at him for another moment, then looked around, shifting her gaze to his companions one by one, looking at Jakken, the twin-headed dragon, and finally Rin. She looked amazed to see a human girl with a demon like Sesshomaru.

"I thought you despised humans…why would you have a little human girl in your ranks?" She stared at Sesshomaru again for an answer, but none came from him. "Maybe you do have feelings after all…maybe you do have human traits in you."

Sesshomaru felt a jolt of anger course through him. For a split second, he felt like he wanted to tear this person to shreds for saying that. But for some reason, he felt like he didn't want to. There was one other thing bothering him about this person though.

"Have we met before? I don't think I've ever seen you before. How do you know this much about me?"

"Oh, don't worry, I know a lot about you," she replied, with a slight wink. She continued on. "Perhaps she's with you because you don't want to take orders from your feelings. You don't want to be controlled by your likes and dislikes. It's okay to admit you have feelings…it's not like it's going to kill you…"

Sesshomaru ignored that last comment, and asked her once again. "What do you want? You're obviously not here simply to chat."

She formed a slight smile again, and replied: "Yes, you're right. I came to obtain something of yours. I want the fang you inherited from your father. The Tensusaiga."

"Why would you want this useless sword?" He still didn't move, though he anticipated a battle coming.

"Well, if it's so useless, then why don't you just hand it over?" She held out her hand, as if expecting him to actually give it to her, with her finger pointing to the sword.

"If you want it that badly, then why don't you try to take it from me?" He took a ready stance, but still waited for his opponent to make the first move.

She hesitated for a second, then replied: "Very well, if that's the way you want it." She reached for her blade on her back, but as she reached upward, a green tendril of energy hit her arm and smacked it away from the handle of her weapon. Sesshomaru still stood across from her, keeping his stance. He had his arm straight out at his side, with his index and middle fingers extended from his hand, the tendril of energy attached to them. He called it back immediately after it hit the woman's arm.

"No," Sesshomaru said. "I want to see you fight without the aid of a weapon. I can see that you are a demon. Let me see your abilities."

He made the first move. The demon lord dashed forward with lightening speed and attempted to slash at the woman with his claws. With the same speed, she crouched slightly, and leapt out of the way. Sesshomaru followed her, and they ran through the forest, side by side, as flashes of light, while they took swipes at each other with their claws. None of the blows connected on either side, although a few small trees were knocked down as a result of missed and deflected attacks.

Jakken made an effort to chase after them, but Rin held him back, telling the imp that Lord Sesshomaru could handle this on his own. So they just stood there, watching as the two streaks of light fled through the forest around them, trying to keep up with each other. Once in a while the streaks would slow down enough to form actual bodies for a split second, as one would attack and the other would defend.

After several blows were attempted by both sides, the woman dashed forward and jumped upward, where she landed on the top of a tree, and leapt from there upward in the air, flying forward over the trees. Sesshomaru did the same a second later, jumping to a different tree, and leaping in the air from it.

Once in the air, Sesshomaru extended the two fingers from his hand again, and launched a long, green, glowing whip of energy at his female opponent. To his surprise, she did the exact same thing, only lashing out a blue whip of energy instead. She used her whip to knock his out of the way, and they ended up wrapping around one another. They both landed in a fairly open area near the lake, and played tug-of-war with each other's attacks. The woman seemed to be having more difficulty than Sesshomaru. It was at this point that the demon lord realized he didn't have a name for this opponent.

"You are quite formidable. Your strength almost matches mine. You are truly a skilled and powerful demon. What is your name?"

The woman gave a slight chuckle. "It's about time you cared. You are everything I expected you to be. My name is Kyotai. You shouldn't forget it soon, I hope," she said with another wink.

"No. I shouldn't," Sesshomaru replied as he exerted more force on his pull, and gave his side a whipping motion, sending Kyotai flying straight into the lake with a big splash that got Jakken soaked but missed Rin. Jakken was annoyed at the fact that it hit him and not her, even though they were standing right next to each other.

Sesshomaru slowly walked toward the lake as the water calmed. Kyotai emerged from the lake again, but unlike before, she was completely soaked. "That was impressive, Lord Sesshomaru. You have me defeated. I look forward to the next time we meet." She gave another slight wink, and dove back into the water. Sesshomaru could feel her presence disappear from within the lake a few seconds later. At least she knows when to give up, Sesshomaru thought to himself.

He turned around to look at his traveling partners. He looked past the soaked Jakken complaining, and was relieved to see that Rin was okay. He looked up to the sky for a moment, looking at the near full moon.

"We had better get moving again," He told them, and started walking. He thought back to his fight with Kyotai a few minutes earlier. Rin caught up with him, and could've sworn that she had seen the slightest smile stretch across her master's lips.