Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Inuyasha characters. Mitsuko and any other original characters are mine.
Day One: And the Battle Begins
Sunshine sparkled through the branches of the trees and danced across Mitsuko's face, drawing her from her troubled dreams. When she opened her eyes, she looked to the spot where the youkai had been the night before. He was gone. Rin was still curled up fast asleep. The toad was snoring loud enough to wake the dead and was beginning to annoy Mitsuko already. The two headed dragon watched all three of the individuals in the campsite with an air of complete boredom. They alone knew Sesshomaru was watching from a distance. Sesshomaru wanted to see how Rin and Mitsuko would react to each other and to see if the human female would put Jaken in his place. Mitsuko rose from her bedroll, walked calmly to Jaken's side, stood above him with a serene smile on her lips and then kicked him in his offending little beak. Jaken jumped up and was prepared to give the female the beating she deserved when he was lifted off the ground by the females hands.
Mitsuko looked the toad in the eye and very calmly said "You will no longer call the child or me by anything other then our names. You will treat her better and you will be a much nicer little toad."
"Or what human?" Jaken asked in his most superior voice.
"Or I will make your merry little existence a living nightmare toad." Mitsuko put Jaken down and began humming to herself as she walked to the river to bathe. Jaken stared at her retreating figure in disbelief. How dare she, a human, talk to him, a youkai, like that? Sesshomaru patted himself on the back because the female had seen right through Jaken and instead of using physical violence just threatened the little toad. Jaken would spend the rest of the day working himself into a frenzy wondering what Mitsuko could possibly do to him. The toads own mind was often his worst enemy and would cause him more sleepless nights then a beating from the female would. Sesshomaru followed the female to the river to explain her purpose in his group.
She was still humming to herself when she slipped into the river and began to hurriedly bathe. The water seemed to be colder then it was yesterday and she didn't want to spend anymore time then was necessary in the water. Sesshomaru, seeing her enter the water, decided to wait on the bank to talk to her about her role in the group. This would be Sesshomaru's first mistake of the day. He soon learned one simply did not watch a female bathe.
When Mitsuko rose from the water, she hurriedly made for the shore and her warm dry clothes. Once she reached the bank, Mitsuko froze in disbelief and anger. Sitting in the sun Sesshomaru did not understand her anger.
"What are you doing here? Why are you watching me bathing?" Mitsuko just wanted to put her kimono on or at the very least her undergarments. Her hands were a poor substitute for her clothes. Sesshomaru did not seem to notice she was unclothed, dripping wet, and shivering from cold as he began to speak.
"I came to inform you of your duties in this group. You will have many duties the main one is to……"
"You came to talk to me while I was bathing? Can I at least have my clothes then pervert?" Sesshomaru was stunned. No one, not even other tai-youkais interrupted him when he was talking and no one had ever called him a pervert before. He looked at the female for the first time and saw the blush rising up the long elegant neck and then spread across her cheeks. He motioned to her clothes with one clawed hand and simply said "Your clothes are where you left them." Rage instantly boiled inside of Mitsuko. She had seen the recognition of her nakedness in the youkai's eyes and had seen him decide to assert his dominance by making her come to get her clothes. She stood there undecided, freezing, and embarrassed to be seen naked by this arrogant youkai. She made up her mind to retrieve her clothes when a morning breeze raised goose bumps on the small of her back. Hurrying over to the reclining Sesshomaru, Mitsuko snatched up her clothes and hurriedly pulled them on. As she was dressing, Sesshomaru could hear her mumbling to herself about arrogant youkai who thought they would control her. He heard something about his family lineage that would have made a seasoned soldier blush because of its crudeness. When she was finally dressed, Sesshomaru began again.
"Your duties in this group will be numerous. However, the most important one will be to care for and teach Rin the things she should have learned from her mother. You are now her mother." Sesshomaru rose from his reclining position in the sun and began to walk back to camp. Sesshomaru's second mistake of the day was believing the female was now subservient and would do as he said. Since he believed he was in complete control, Sesshomaru dropped his guard to scan the area around the camp for any enemies. He did not hear her run towards him until it was too late. Sesshomaru felt a small warm body slam into him from his left side. The female had completely taken him by surprise and because of this Sesshomaru wound up sitting in the river. His once fluffy fur was now drenched and sagging off his shoulder, his bangs hung in thick wet clumps obscuring part of the view of the female as she bent down and looked him in the eye.
Mitsuko very calmly said "I do not like to be watched while I bathe. Stay away from me when I do it. You can find yourself another girl for these duties too. I have no desire to be a mother to any child." Mitsuko turned and walked away from a fuming Sesshomaru. As Sesshomaru rose from the water he decided he had to teach the female a lesson. He also decided he could never let his guard down around Mitsuko again. She was dangerously clever for a human.
When Mitsuko entered camp she was still angry at Sesshomaru. She already had a plot forming in her mind. One that would make the tai-youkai think twice about ordering her around. Perhaps her plan would even convince the youkai to let her go and begin a new life.
As Sesshomaru entered the campsite, he watched a smirk pass across Mitsuko's face. Inside he groaned, he had seen another woman smirk like that too. His mother had often had that I am going to be very annoying smirk on her face many times when his father had done something she did not like. Sesshomarus' mother usually only annoyed his father by moving things around or rearranging his desk. These little tricks of hers annoyed his father because of his desire for perfection in his office. Sesshomaru had a feeling Mitsuko would be far more brutal in her tricks then his mother ever was. This was going to be a very long day.