Sesshoumaru's Mom
While walking alongside Sesshoumaru, Kikyou noted a resemblance between him and his brother. It was strange how she managed to do that, since their resemblance was basically the same hair and eye color, and nothing more (aside from all the traits that a normal person/demon would have). However, Sesshoumaru seemed so much more handsome, despite looking somewhat like a drag queen with a boa, a kimono with a flower pattern, something that looked oddly akin to mascara, and long hair. But of course, in Kikyou's opinion, that was the natural look for a demon despite how no other demon had all those features.
Somehow, simultaneously, Sesshoumaru was "checking out" Kikyou. She looked alarmingly similar to how his mother had looked. They had thesame waist-length obsidian hair and mahogany eyes (he failed to notice that mostAsians, aside from the looney teenagers who dye their hair five different colors, had those features). And, of course, both parties noted how astonishing good-looking the other was.
There's the old saying that it's what's inside that counts, but who cares what those old geezers who have fifty times our experience say? Main characters in a romance should become attracted to each other due to looks.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, where are we going?" Kikyou asked.
"To my castle," he replied bluntly. He was supposed to be wandering, but he was a lord and didn't give a shit what his creator, Rumiko Takahashi, wanted him to do.
The portion of how food was gathered was not mentioned. Being a priestess, Kikyou was not allowed to eat meat (the same applied for monks, so one must wonder why the head monk hasn't kicked Miroku out yet). Fruit isn't that filling, and vegetables do not commonly grow on the ground. Or, at least, edible vegetables that people in Feudal Japan would know about (even if priestesses knew anything about herds, they wouldn't know anything about vegetables). But we shall skip over that part and pretend that it is not a plothole.
Upon arrival in the castle, the demon servants and guards there stared at Kikyou queerly, wondering what their lord was doing with yet another human. They dearly hoped that he would not go on the same path as his father, which was not necessarily such a bad thing since Inutaisho was pretty darn powerful.
There are several possibilities of what happens next. Ultimately, the desired result is the same. The first possibility is that to put the demon servants at ease (not that Sesshoumaru even cared about what they thought in the first place), Sesshoumaru had Kikyou change into something other than her priestess attire. The second possibility is that because of the wound (that Kikyou had gotten while fighting the bandits/demon), Sesshoumaru ordered Kikyou to change out of her ripped kimono and into clothes that would be provided for her. The third possibility is the least mentioned, but the most reasonable: bluntly put,Sesshoumaru thought that she smelled horrible after not having a bath for the journey to the castle. Of course, he would sugarcoat it, but that was what he really meant.
Being the dunce he is, Sesshoumaru ordered for Kikyou to change into the kimono of his mother. There was the excuse that he didn't have any other kimonos, but really, any normal castle has female servants with reasonable-looking kimono. And if he wasn't satisfied with Rin's governess being dressed in a normal kimono: really, he's a demon lord; he can just, gasp, send someone over to the nearest village and buy a good kimono.
Being a lord with plenty of unnecessary and useless servants, he ordered one to take care of Kikyou. That servant just had to be a friendly one who Kikyou befriends (after lots of small talk). The servant talked about Sesshoumaru and his lands and a whole lot of other crap, serving much the same purpose as a tutorial in a video game: to bore the heck out of you while spoiling the fun of a learning curve.
Kikyou stepped into the hot spring, which was conveniently located inside the castle. The reader should note how astonishingly beautiful she looked while naked (the exact details will be left to the reader's own imagination since I wouldn't want to raise this to a T rating). It was really of no consequence how she looked naked because she wouldn't be naked for this story, but everyone decided that sex appeal was one of the largest factors in a romance. Or, at least, the romances written in the twenty-first century since blatant talk of sex before the twenty-first century would be considered indecent (and might cause quite a few faint-of-hearts to faint).
Inside the hot spring, Kikyou started contemplating. And again, she was thinking along the same lines of how absolutely horrid her life was. Perhaps the reason for her sudden complaints were because readers always turned out to be ten times as sympathetic as characters in the show, especially when Kagome, the female lead who is supposed to be the most sympathetic character, isn't that fond of her.
After her bath, Kikyou changed into the kimono. Most people, nevermind people accustomed to wearing the loose priestess garbs for most of their life, would trip and fall once they got into a kimono. But not our ever graceful and perfect heroine. She got into the kimono fine by herself (it is very hard to tie it at the back by yourself) and managed to strut out with a classy and elegant air. This effect is, as I have dubbed, the ability for a protagonist to defy all reason and sometimes physics just to make a fancy and dramatic appearance.
Cue lots of flowery language praising how Kikyou looks; starting with something close to "She took Sesshoumaru's breath away" or "She was absolutely beautiful". It was followed by phrases such as, "pretty" and "beautiful". The writers usually did not bother to pull out a theasaurus (or even use Microsoft Words' handy-dandy theasaurus that was two clicks away) or even think for a few seconds and come up with "dazzling" or "striking".
After having his breath taken away, Sesshoumaru instantaneously fell in love. Why? Because looks matter the most; that's why Pamela Anderson will be mentioned in the history books five times as much as Napoleon.
Of course, the cold demon lord would never recognize the emotion and so, therefore, he felt "something strange" in his heart. It would seem rather obvious to someone with even half a brain, nevermind the genius of someone with several hundred years of experience, that the feeling was love.
But regardless, he found himself staring, which is quite an odd thing to do. It is quite understandable (albeit perverted) to stare at a woman if she was near naked, as in wearing a bikini, but really, it's a kimono – unless someone has been completely sexually deprived for several hundred years, they wouldn't stare. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that Sesshoumaru is either sexually deprived or such a pervert that he would stare at a woman in a kimono.
Kikyou noticed him staring and asked, "What is it?"
"Nothing," Sesshoumaru quickly responded. "It's just that," one would think that if he said it was nothing, he would stand by that response since it would save him a lot of trouble, but he's supposed to be an idiot in this story, "that used to be my mother's kimono and...I suppose that it brings back old memories. You...look a lot like my mother." Despite having kept all his emotions bottled up for God knows how long, he decided that this was the best time to break that habit. Besides, a stranger whom he was only formally acquainted with a few days ago was the perfect confidant for all his secrets. You can see how the characters are all obviously geniuses with an IQ of at least one hundred eighty.
"Oh." Kikyou responded, without knowing what else to say. The correct response would have been one of several choices: "Really? What was you mother like" if she wanted to learn more about him; "Oh, thank you" if she wanted to appear polite; a blush if she wanted to get hitched with Sesshoumaru anytime soon; or "Buster, don't you dare compare me to your old lady" if she wanted to quit her job as a nanny (the thing with lords is that they can fire you, but you die if you try to quit).
Being the talkative person that he was, Sesshoumaru decided to spill out his life story. It was primarily very boring, for anyone who's watched enough anime since there's always like five characters that have some sob story past.
After a whole long session of pity, Kikyou started telling her own sob story. Why the heck they choose to remain in the hallway to exchange sob stories is beyond me. It's also beyond me why no servants have walked by and told Kikyou the biting reality: "Oh, suck it up, you grouch" (or, rather, the feudal equivalent for that).
And so in approximately a week, Sesshoumaru and Kikyou became new best friends. Don't you just love how everything gets rushed?