A/N:
This chapter is way overdue, please forgive me for the delay, and thank you so much for you wonderful reviews and support my dear readers!
I hope you'll continue to enjoy this story!
Chapter Eighteen
"S-Sesshomaru-sama...?" Confused, Jaken whipped his head after his master as the latter quietly strode past the camp area, continuing on his way to an unnamed location, "Where are you g –"
"Shut up." Sesshomaru harshly cut into his inquiry without even sparing a glance at him, his voice deadly and low, "I will kill you."
The imp-demon could only cower into himself with a terrified shudder as he rigidly watched his master's feet soon detach from the ground below them, his fur sash extending to wrap around his legs as it smoothly carried him away, into the chilly and clear endless night sky. With his mouth forming a straight line, Jaken's gaze lingered on his form as it gradually disappeared into the darkness, only a gleam of his long silver hair reflecting the moonlight above hinting his faraway position, soon vanishing entirely into the distance, as well.
Turning around and plopping back into his improvised seat against a large rock, Jaken sighed heavily.
Then, he lifted his yellow eyes and set them on the person who was last to share a lengthy exchange with the daiyoukai, watching her from afar as she remained in her silent spot, standing in the middle of the flowery field.
Eventually, she turned on her heel and began stepping to his location, as well.
Reaching the campsite, the miko presented him with a none-too-surprising impassive expression, but her attention was strangely fixed down on him, causing Jaken to swallow with consuming nervousness to the sudden unsettling atmosphere.
"Did he mention where he was heading to, Jaken?" She calmly asked, intense mahogany bearing a certain, although still very subtle and genuine wondering in them.
Narrowing his vision up at her, Jaken scoffed loudly.
"How should I know!" He bitterly exclaimed, crossing his arms before his chest, "Sesshomaru-sama barely tells me anything lately..."
Staring down at him, Kikyo let out a quiet breath.
"I see." She answered, stepping into the camp's boundaries and resting herself on top of a large rock, positioned across from the small youkai and closer to the sleeping Rin. She placed the wooden water compartment in her hand on the grassy ground near her feet with a smooth motion, lifting her now free hand to slowly disarm herself from the arrow quiver still supported on her back.
But raising her gaze back up, Kikyo noticed Jaken's tapering stare had never left her for even a second since her approach to the campsite.
"Is there something you wish to say?" She steadily encouraged, her expression unreadable.
An annoyed frown was quick to form in his green brows, but instead of lashing out eccentrically as she expected him to and possibly waking Rin in the process, instead, the imp-demon only released another heavy sigh, exhaustion soon overcoming his features.
"To think that I, Jaken, was foolish enough to even raise the possibility before him... stupid Rin." She heard him mutter under his breath in pure defeat to himself, his yellow eyes leaving her to focus on the bright flames in front of him as he decided to terminate their short-lived exchange, shielding himself away from her being and into his own thoughts.
But his quiet mumble was not left unregistered.
Tilting her head slightly to the side, Kikyo allowed herself to keep evaluating his form and his words.
Then, she turned to stare at the child sprawled on the caressing greenery and leaned against the belly of the resting two-headed dragon to her right, the tall grass enveloping her existence and almost providing her small frame with a makeshift blanket.
Realizing the situation before her at that very moment, the priestess only lifted her hands upwards in front of the soothing warmth of the fire, closing her eyes.
'Seems like these two had coordinated an attack of their own...' She concluded to herself.
Landing on top of a high, rocky cliff, away from the strong flowery scent and the miko's presence, Sesshomaru breathed deep, finally able to provide himself with a remote location to sort his own thoughts. However, and much to his chagrin, the large distance still failed to calm the pitiful and uncontrollable pounding of his own heart against his ribs.
He narrowed his golden eyes and took a sharp breath, forcing his lungs to sustain the piercing coldness of the air in order to once again calm this cursed warm emotion that was stirring inside of him due to his latest unreasonable actions.
And his brows soon furrowed with silent displeasure.
Ignoring these unnamed and absurd urges that sparked in him lately was one thing, yet acting upon them was another in its entirely, deserving of his attention and alert.
How could he have let himself be so blindly absorbed in that moment?
For his hand to be guided by the strange impulse like that, pulled after the consuming need to remove that silly petal from her being as it impudently hanged before him, coaxing him into carrying out such an unnecessary action without himself even noticing... to so casually enter her personal space and for the act to feel as natural as it did...
Unthinkable.
But swallowing the cursed imaginary lump in his throat and feeling the cold breeze against his features as it swayed through his long hair, Sesshomaru took a moment of silence as a much-needed respite for his mind, soon realizing something else regarding the latest occurrences which so violently occupied his thinking;
Why did she let him proceed with his actions like that, not halting his doings right away?
At that moment, he recalled the look displaying to him through her entrancing mahogany eyes as he pulled back on his palm, extracting the petal from deep within her silky, dark strands. There was no trace of fear in them, only silent wondering, interest, even, and her relaxed spiritual aura was reduced to almost nothing as if to deliberately not hurt him, granting him free access, instead;
As if to allow herself to quietly test him.
How absurd.
'That arrogant woman... does she truly not fear I, Sesshomaru, at all?'
He quietly opened and closed his palm, attempting to chase away the endless, most irritating sensation of tingles on top of his flesh. Like tiny bolts of lightning, they spread all through his sense of touch, emanating from where his skin had met with hers, the warmth completely dismissing the coldness of the night and the wind as if those weren't even present.
Lowering his golden eyes to his traitorous limb, the daiyoukai clenched his jaw.
He could still feel her lingering presence there, just as the memory of her touch remained long after he had carried her following to Naraku's attack on Mt. Hakurei, and same as it did when he restrained her wrists that night by the river, as well as when she had unnecessarily insisted on treating his wounds, each occasion and each touch residing both physically and mentally, in his flesh and in that damn compartment in his brain, carrying the various memories of her, slowly but surely piling up without his consent or control.
Was he the only one troubled by this disruptive phenomenon?
Most likely; or else the miko would have been at least somewhat fazed by his approach earlier, if not displaying her emotions and breaking her calm expression for once, then definitely exposing it by her spiritual aura before him...
With both demonstrating anything but mental disturbance to his close proximity.
Balling his fist, Sesshomaru set his gaze on the far distance, focusing on a small, nonspecific human village located right in the middle of the valley. Only a few pathetic-looking men were left to guard the entrance to their territory for the night, the image of them clenching onto nothing but useless human farming equipment for defense, believing that would suffice in guarding their existence from even the weakest of youkai, almost making him fill with pity at the forlorn sight.
Maintaining his unreadable expression, Sesshomaru only exhaled silently at the following realization which soon crossed his line of thought;
Perhaps he had foolishly let himself grow too soft, lately.
Coming to the priestess' aid and seeking her approval on various occasions might have falsely allowed her to mistaken her place in this alliance, causing her to feel an exaggerated sense of safety around him, a deceiving boost to her ego which permitted her to act in this insolent matter, the entire situation pushing their combined surroundings to consider inconceivable possibilities.
He was Lord of the Western Lands, to be feared and taken seriously by every being.
And the miko was no different.
The hours passed and the air still smelt strongly of the pleasant flowery fragrance from the field behind her, winding Kikyo's mind back to that same particular moment when Sesshomaru had responded to her voice, finally out of his deep contemplation, the flicker of his golden eyes as they interlocked with hers seemingly lighting a spark of realization which was absent before, as if he was somehow moving without even noticing, sunk into his own mind and engulfed deep into his own odd thoughts.
Could a similar question to what Rin had asked her earlier this day confuse him that much?
Pulled by a will of its own, her left hand lifted up to the still warm spot at her neck once again, her fingers gently tracing yet another place imprinted with the memory of his touch as if attempting to read answers from the sensation.
Examining the entire exchange, however, Kikyo couldn't help but detain on a single fact, one which she was most surprised by;
She did not feel any fear or even the slightest hint of alert at his clawed hand forming contact with such a vulnerable place on her body, on the contrary... among her silent confusion... she somehow felt so warm and safe, excited even, by his close proximity and the unexpected moment they shared between them.
Has she gone mad?
Sesshomaru is a full youkai, her unplanned ally in this endless pursuit after their mutual enemy.
What could have possibly made her overcome with unexplained curiosity to his following choice of actions?
"Are you sure you don't like him back, Kikyo-sama?"
Letting out a silent breath as Rin's words emerged into her conscious, Kikyo observed as the wood snapped under the heat of the flames before her, emitting a loud crackle of the substance and releasing a few sparks to the air above the fire.
'I have let myself become too influenced by my conversation with Rin after all, huh.' She determined.
Searching her own mind and feelings further, Kikyo soon recalled hearing about an old belief, something that was theorized long ago, a speculation that reached her ears during her time as a young priestess in training, regarding living beings and shared alliances; how a certain way of life allowing individuals to operate together, see each other every day under consistent circumstances and spend continuous hours cooperatively, could inevitably coax those same individuals into developing a false sense of familiarity towards each other, one which could easily be mistaken for a deceiving feeling of fondness, with the positive experiences and warm comfort tied to their mutual alliance only amplifying the impact of the effect.
There was no doubt in her mind that both Sesshomaru and her had managed to fall into the rule of this theory, the mere daily exposure they had to one another most likely toying with them both into experiencing these deceiving and unlikely emotions, now.
Unfortunately for the priestess, however, her mind had no intention of stopping at this particular revelation, causing her to lower her left hand back to rest on her lap, fingers joining together and a certain heaviness spreading at her chest as her thinking wandered towards a dangerous territory, threatening her own pride;
Perhaps the fact that Inuyasha now had Kagome at his side... was pushing her into subconsciously competing with such a situation.
A place that should have been hers... was now taken by another woman, leaving her as only a spectator, watching their blooming relationship gradually prosper, slowly but surely successfully opening Inuyasha up as a person, providing him with a healthy basis to show different sides to him which managed to surprise even her when she noticed.
Her shoulders slumped as she let herself dive further into her thoughts.
The human mind truly is ultimately fragile like that... desperate and greedy; searching for this lost comfort which it once enjoyed wherever it can find it, whenever a potential candidate emerges, possibly serving as a target of projection for this selfish and extremely misplaced need, for primal instinct and blinding emotions...
She should have known better at the current state of her own existence, one which should always come first and never fail to remind her that she should cast away any notions of the sort, for those were nothing but pointless and fruitless agony for herself.
She was no longer part of the living.
Inuyasha had moved on.
And Sesshomaru was her ally, a full youkai.
If not for the necessity of this alliance to her, she would have never sided with him in the first place, even if he had surprisingly proven to be far more agreeable than she had ever expected.
The last part of that particular line of thought, however, struck a certain unexpected cord in her, prompting her mind to replay various scenes from their latest exchanges, times in which her unlikely companion came to her rescue, shared personal aspects of his life with her and respected her enough to seek for her comprehension on multiple occasions...
As well as the few times in which she had caught a rare, genuine glimpse beyond the curtains of his composed exterior, a glint in his golden eyes that reflected a more vulnerable side to him, somehow, assisting her in understanding him better.
But as impressive as an achievement all of that was, she now knew better than to mistake the cause of this development for something as naïve as affection.
And Sesshomaru himself had most likely reached the same conclusion as well, by now.
Kneeling by the fire as she did her best to preserve its consistent warmth for the now sleeping three residences of her camp, Kikyo soon sensed a familiar sensation, and she only glanced up to confirm its source as she witnessed Sesshomaru gracefully landing before her, his shoes meeting with the flowery field below them and his demonic energy as potent as ever. Throwing another piece of wood into the flames before her, the priestess calmly rose to her feet, keeping her position where she stood.
Neither said anything as their gazes soon intertwined, and Kikyo could only observe him as he slowly made his way through the high grass and around the many rocks surrounding their camp.
But instead of reaching where she stood as he normally did, She watched as Sesshomaru elegantly sat himself on top of a large, flat-faced rock across from where she was located, his golden eyes never leaving her being.
Studying the priestess, Sesshomaru lowered his head slightly at her direction. He waited for her to speak first, to let him know of her general thoughts, but the more he waited, the less she seemed willing to surrender any kind of special information to him. He assessed her spiritual aura, focusing on its pattern as it engulfed her being, however he found it only spread around her frame in its usual slow waves, impossible to decipher in any shape or form.
He narrowed his eyes slightly at her.
A certain trait which was only unique to this woman in front of him was her refined lack of expression, an ability which she had perfected over the years of her human training as a priestess, making it impossible for him to know her thoughts. Usually, he sorted to read her emotions through her spiritual energy, which granted him with a rather accurate idea of whatever was going through her mind, but that was of little help to him whenever she proved to be so immensely calm like this.
'This woman had truly let herself rely on this excessive sense of safety around me, huh.' He could only confirm his musings from before, the notion sparking utmost displeasure in him.
"You seem on edge, Sesshomaru." Her steady, yet bold deduction reached his ears, and his scowl was quick to deepen at her words.
His golden eyes gleamed with silent irritation against the steady flames, the silver in his long hair catching the arbitrary light of the fire and shining his impressive features with a glowing warmth to them.
"You are too hasty to reach your incorrect assumptions of me, miko." He countered with a low voice.
Tilting her head slightly to the side, Kikyo kept her stare on him.
"Am I?" She asked, the unwavering tranquility of her tone making him clench his jaw.
And another piece of wood snapped under the heat of the flames, the sound echoing through the stillness of the night.
Rising to his feet, he began to stride in her direction, stepping around the fire and soon reaching where she stood. With his expression composed to cold perfection, Sesshomaru stopped before Kikyo, his gaze scanning her relaxed expression and the way the intermittent shadows danced across her face, the light from the fire exposing her percipient shades of mahogany before him, still lacking even a trace of intimidation in them.
The unwanted and cursed warmth was easy to spread in his chest once again at her standing this close to him, however, this time, combined with a certain need to solve his most recent issue regarding this impertinent woman, to act in a certain way that would guarantee her remembering her place in this journey...
But the longer he stared into her large, brown orbs slightly concealed below her straight and smooth bangs, the more Sesshomaru felt his own resolve suddenly crumble before her;
What was his plan, exactly? Did he wish for her to show him fear?
Did he truly desire to impose such an unsuited expression on her face?
Observing him with silent confusion, Kikyo sought his golden eyes for answers.
And she was suddenly met with a quiet understanding, one which both surprised her, but also inevitably disappointed her altogether;
Sesshomaru had not realized the deceiving effect which influenced his actions from before after all, his mind now most likely plunged into a turmoil over some sort of misunderstanding regarding their current state and following to the concept of someone like him performing such an unthinkable act.
"Sesshomaru."
She turned fully in his direction, gazes entwined and silence reigning all around them once again, the humming of the birds to the now approaching dawn echoing through the depths of the forest above their heads.
Confirming his undivided attention was once again fixed on her, Kikyo straightened before him with poise.
"We mustn't let the situation escalate beyond our control, no matter the words that may reach our ears." She concluded simply up at him.
Lowering his head yet maintaining her eye contact, Sesshomaru blinked as he processed her words.
Judging by what she had just said, it sounded as if he wasn't the only one who was forced to hear a certain useless drivel which held no trace of true foundation to it, one which she had evidently already deemed as nothing short of poison for a coherent thinking process.
And instead of countering, the daiyoukai chose to listen as she continued, instead;
"Let us focus on ensuring Naraku's death with no further unplanned distractions, and without wasting any time."
The intense determination in her eyes was enough to convey her silent, strong will to forget all about what had occurred the night before and pay it no further mind, as well as not pry for any unnecessary and insolent answers out of him.
And an undeniable feeling of relief cleared his chest from the suffocating urge.
However, before he could manage to once again regain control over his own thoughts, the daiyoukai found that the last part of her sentence alerted a subtle flag in his mind, sitting unwell whithin as his keen senses caught somewhat of a decline in the surge of her energy, forming enough proof that his instincts were indeed, correct.
Breaking his gaze away from her, Sesshomaru turned to stare down at the steady flames.
"And after that worm is finally dead... what do you intend to do, then?" He tested, his neutral voice not giving away any of his thoughts.
Surprised by his question, Kikyo examined his profile for another moment, then, let out a deep breath, turning to stare at the crackling fire as well, listening to its continuous consumption of the wood it was fed with, the substance which was healthy and whole not too long ago, now already reduced mostly into a pile of brightly glowing embers.
"I must return to the soil and bones from which I came." She answered simply, yet her heavy words stayed to linger in the air around them both, the labored silence interrupted by a loud breaking of the remaining wood under the heat of the burning fire, "I no longer belong on this earth, after all."
Hearing this, Sesshomaru only glanced down at her from the corner of his eye, catching the undeniable hint of both sadness and regret once again finding its way to reside in her features.
He clenched his jaw in silence, not sure what was more irritating;
The unsuited expression on her face... or the persistent rattling of Tenseiga at his hip.
With two days managing to pass without any new sign of Naraku, both Sesshomaru and Kikyo had decided to venture towards higher ground in order to try and pick up on any scents connected to either their prey or his underlings, resulting in the group setting their camp on a remote cliff with a clear, undisturbed view of the green valley below them.
Standing on the edge of the grassy precipice, Sesshomaru's gaze searched the far distance. Before, he had expected Naraku to quietly cower somewhere in his headquarters and not act for a short while until he was able to recoup his pitiful strength, however, the fact that he had not even used his incarnations to launch a new attack during all of this time was beginning to appear rather suspicious.
"Anything?" He heard Kikyo's steady voice coming from behind him, sensing her aura as she approached his position, soon reaching where he was and standing beside him, her eyes scanning the endless land stretched before them both as the wind picked up through their elevated area, flowing through their garments and long hair.
"The coward continues to conceal himself." Sesshomaru answered, maintaining his gaze forward.
Breathing in the fresh air, Kikyo kept her silence for another moment.
"He will hide until it suits him otherwise." She determined simply, raising her head, "And even then, he would force someone else to perform the dirty work in his stead."
As if on cue, and barely even letting her finish her words, both Sesshomaru and Kikyo suddenly sensed a small presence approaching their location, floating warily in the air and soon entering their line of vision.
They watched in silence as the unexpected existence manifested in the form of a few insect-like youkai, hovering in the air before them. But looking past the odd sight, they both noticed dozens more of their kind appearing below as they made their way through the valley in accumulated groups.
"Humph." Sesshomaru scoffed with a bored expression, raising his clawed hand in the air, releasing a whip of light and swiftly sending it at their direction, slaying through their being with ease as the residue of their body disintegrated in midair.
Blinking with realization, Kikyo's vision narrowed.
"Yadori Sanagi." She calmly stated, focusing her gaze on the fewer groups now crossing through the valley beneath them.
"An feeble insect that latches onto stronger youkai in order to survive, huh." Sesshomaru continued, lowering his hand back to his side.
Furrowing her brows slightly, Kikyo kept her undivided attention down, her eyes soon shifting towards the source of the small youkai and the direction in which they came from, locating a few more approaching the area below as well, observing as they scattered aimlessly, desperately attempting to locate a new host for themselves to sustain from.
"For so many to run rampant like this..." She began, turning to stare downwards, "A large youkai must have been suddenly killed, however..."
Sesshomaru glanced down at her direction.
"The air lacks any scent from a corpse that big." He stated.
Lifting her eyes to him, Kikyo's expression turned stern.
"This is most likely Naraku's doing." She specualted, once again searching the distance, "What reason he has for his current actions is still unclear, but this isn't normal."
Keeping his silence and gaze fixed down at her, Sesshomaru observed the sight of quiet evaluation displaying on her features, with the priestess soon achieving a certain solution to her current issue. Interested, he watched her closely as she sent one hand inside her haori shirt, pulling out two small paper figures clasped between her fingers. Straight-faced, his golden eyes followed after her movement as she took one step backwards, discarding them to the grassy ground before her feet, quickly raising two fingers before her chest and closing her eyes to ensure utmost concentration.
And a single moment later, bright spiritual light suddenly engulfed the two small pieces of paper, piling up and compressing into itself, eventually forming the shape of two, short human-looking children, wearing blank expressions and colorful outfits.
Running towards the sudden occurrence, Rin's features crossed with shock.
"Woah!" Her excited movement turned hesitated as she approached closer, overwhelmed by how real the two individuals looked, "Two girls just appeared out of thin air!"
Jaken, who was still sitting in the camp area only widened his large, yellow eyes with pure terror at the impossible sight.
Turning fully back in Kikyo's direction, Sesshomaru's gaze switched between the two children and their creator, his sharp brows furrowing at a silent attempt to comprehend the situation before him. He maintained his silence and continued observing as the priestess reached inside the pocket of her red hakama trousers, finding her portable knife. Without saying anything, Kikyo removed the lid to her weapon, sectioning a small strand of long hair and lifting the knife to cut the precise amount with a smooth motion, the piece still connected falling back to intersperse with the rest of her unbound locks, leaving the strands in her palm ready for use.
Wrapping the piece with her white hair binding, Kikyo presented it to one of the children, who quietly and obediently took it into their grasp.
"Fly around while carrying this." She instructed them both.
"Yes, Kikyo-sama." They answered in perfect synch, nodding once and beginning to levitate in the air, flying away to the sky and leaving a trail of spiritual energy behind them as they quickly vanished into the horizon, behind the nearest mountain.
"What is the meaning of this?" Sesshomaru steadily asked, his evaluating gaze fixed on the remains of the spiritual energy left in the sky, soon turning back to the priestess for answers.
"Shikigami." Kikyo answered simply, her attention still set on their course of movement, "Beings made of spiritual energy, summoned to serve a certain purpose."
He stared at her for another moment.
"And your hair?" He further investigated.
Putting her knife back into the pocket of her red hakama trousers, Kikyo shifted her attention to her companion.
"I will use it to try and search for Naraku's whereabouts." She answered, turning on her heel as she began stepping towards the camp area, with the still shocked Rin quickly following after her. His golden eyes remained on the woman as he watched her distance herself, only to suddenly stop in her tracks, head halfway turned in his direction and mahogany once again clashing with fierce gold, "If I succeed, I will require your cooperation with what I have in mind, Sesshomaru."
A/N:
The rat ordeal is skipped, due to it being just plain filler, as well as irrelevant to the story's occurrences.
Kikyo's deduction in this chapter is also a real psychological phenomenon, for anyone who's interested. It's called the The Mere-exposure Effect and I wanted to explore that with those two for a while.(Yes, you have most likely already realized that I'm a big Psychology nerd, by now.)
Also, Kocho and Asuka finally join the group. Are you ready for some Rin interactions with those two?
Hope you liked this one, please let me know what you think!