Eri: Ok, i gotta say this cuz people keep asking. This is NOT a sess/kag, This is a sess/other character story.

Chapter 4: Who are you?

Sesshoumaru had left Ayuki alone to travel the castle as she pleased. She wqas overwhelmed to say the least. She had never in her life seen a place so grand as this. She wandered the hallways of the castle endlessly. Each room she entered held new surprises. She had found a library filled to the brim with books. She had found bedrooms, studies, even ceremonial halls. She was impressed. 'Lord Sesshoumaru keeps a clean home.' she thought as she passed yet another spotless table in the hallway. She was so busy musing with the castles appearance that she did not notice the servant heading towards her.

"You there! Ningen! Get out of this castle before I destroy you!" screamed the servant.

Ayuki jumped and turned to see the inu youkai charging at full speed towards her. His yell had attracted the attention of the other servants near by and they were now coming at her too. She was not sure how to explain to them that she was a guest but she didn't have time to think about it. She didn't want to use her powers on them, considering they were still her secret, so she ran, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" She yelled at her attackers.

She ran round a corner and caught a glimpse of Sesshoumaru and ran straight towards him. He noticed her coming and stepped in front of her, blocking her from the servants.

"Why do you chase my guest?" He asked in his deadliest voice. He was unsure why, but he felt angry that his servants would attack her. He felt her cowering behind him. She understood that no matter how strong her mind was she would never have been able to take on that many guards.

The guards shook with fear at his words. They had not realized that she was welcome in the castle. They had assumed her to be an intruder, though how she would have gotten past the gates they had not thought through yet.

"W-we are s-sorry milord. We d-did not know she was a g-guest…" The one nearest Sesshoumaru said as they all dropped to their knees into the lowest bow they could possibly have taken.

"Be sure that this does not happen again." He said growling to them and allowing them to leave. They all bowed appreciatively and thanked him for his graciousness before nearly running for their lives. Ayuki sighed in relief and allowed herself to catch her breath.

"Thanks. I needed that." She said still breathing hard.

"You will train. Next time more than one opponent attacks you will not run."

Ayuki nodded. She did desire to train but she didn't have anyone to train with before. This was rather exciting to her. She had finally told someone she felt she could trust her secret. Mind you, it was only because she was being forced to do it. She couldn't believe what had just happened. Not only did she just find herself running and hiding behind the much feared Lord Sesshoumaru of the western lands, but he had protected her! She shook her head to clear her thoughts so she could properly respond to what he had said.

"Yes, I would very much like to train. It'll be nice to have someone to work with for once."

Sesshoumaru turned and looked at her. She had spoken so informally with him. 'That was almost as though she considers me a...friend...' Sesshoumaru was disgusted with his thoughts. He could not afford to have a friend or anything else. 'Mate...now thats a different story...wait...No! She is a ningen. I will not think that way about her.' He turned from Ayuki to walk away only to hear her laugh and stop dead in his tracks.

"What are you laughing at?" He asked, raising an elegant eyebrow in her direction.

"Nothing. It was just the look on your face at my answer. Well, technically it wasn't on your face since that was stoic as ever. It was more your eyes. I'm sorry. hahaha. I'll try to stop laughing now..." Ayuki answered, nearly falling over with laughter.

Sesshoumaru growled at her, though it was not hostile. It seemed merely irritated. Ayuki was shocked. This would have meant anyone elses death to laugh at him, but he was sparing her for some reason. She had to resist the urge to peak into his mind to see just what he was thinking, but she didn't want to invoke his wrath should he find out so she kept her mind to herself. She watched him walk away with a look of shock still plastered to her face.

Sesshoumaru could not believe he had let her off with laughing at him. He didn't even scold or threaten her. 'I'm getting weak' he thought to himself. 'Next time she will not get away with such actions...'

'yes she will'

'Who are you?'

'your inner inu'

'Go away.'

'No. We like this girl. You will not harm her.'

'I do not like her.'

'Don't lie to yourself.'

'Very well. Ignore me if you like, but I do not go away.'

Sesshoumaru growled to himself. Somehow this girl had awakened his inner demon and he needed to know how. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. The only time he had ever seen his inner demon come forward was when he was angry but it seemed so much more civilized now. Perhaps it was because it wasn't acting merely on instincts. He made his way to his study. Somewhere in all the scrolls in his study there must be SOMETHING to explain this strange reaction.

He searched his study for hours and found nothing in the scrolls he had in there. He had nearly exhausted them when a thought came to mind. His father left his personal scrolls in the library. He had not wanted to read them before for they contained his father's personal thoughts, but he had no choice. He would not go uneducated about what was happening to himself. He had to know. He made his way to the library, went to the very farthers corner of the library and found his fathers scrolls. They were categorized by date. Sesshoumaru sighed to himself. This was going to take a very long time.

He grabbed as many scrolls as he could, relishing the use of his new arm. He had nearly forgotten how useful having two arms was. He set them down on the large table in the middle of the room, sat down, and started to read them one by one. He read for a good 3 hours before he finally came across what he was looking for.

January 23rd, 1376

I keep thinking back on how I met Lady Izaiyoi. She was being attacked by a swarm of moth demons.

'Hmm, that sounds very familiar.'

I thought nothing of her at first. Merely a woman on my lands in need of protection. I did my duty in protecting her. I made to leave her but she seemed frightened. I was reluctant to take her with me but I decided that I would. We came back to the castle and she was amazed at it's size. I learned more about her the more time we spent together. She told me that she was betrothed to marry a human male she did not love. The word love sparked an unknown curiousity in my.

I began thinking. I began having thoughts about mating her. I pushed them aside though. She was human and I knew Sesshoumaru would never accept her as my mate. He was never the same after his mother's death. After a while I could no longer ignore my inner demon. Some how Izaiyoi had awakened it. I would disagree with me whenever I denied how I felt about her. Anytime another male came near her it would become enraged and fight against my control. I know now what was happening. My inner demon had already chosen her as it's mate. The more I denied it, the stronger my instincts became and the harder it was to control myself.

I should never have denied my inner inu. I should hope that should Sesshoumaru ever read this, he would never denied his inner demon. Many servants lost their lives to my enraged inu.

Sesshoumaru stopped reading. He had heard what he needed to. His inner demon had already chosen Ayuki as it's mate and denying it was a grave mistake. Though he did not show it, he appreciated his servants. Most of them were demons whose parents had been defeated in battle or who had been orphaned some other way that either he or his father took in. He did not want to be the one to kill any of them without a cause. They would be under his protection unless they went against his orders.

Sesshoumaru sighed to himself. His inner inu was impossible to deny. He had to admit, his inu had chosen a strong and beautiful mate. He would have to some how inform her of this. She would fight against him at first. It was all part of the mating game. He had to somehow coax her into allowing him to court her.

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Eri: Ok, just a reminder. This is not a sess/kag in case you couldn't tell by that chapter. lol. well, that was my first shot at an inner demon thing and a point of veiw sesshy's dad so go easy on me. Please review though:)