Satoru stuffs his hands into his pockets, ignoring the pointed glare from Sesshomaru as they walked down the street. He wets his lips, the cool, crisp air, does absolutely nothing to cool the fire building in his veins. "So," he says with fake enthusiasm, "since you've so graciously accepted me as Kagome's mate. Does that mean you'll stop trying to claim her as your alpha female?" Now, Satoru is not an expert on demons—personally, he wouldn't be too upset if they just all disappeared one day. Well… Yakeru was growing on him and Buyo Jr. could stick around, but the others could kick rocks.
Especially this Sesshomaru and that wolf he mentioned. Satoru didn't even know the guy yet, and he already disliked him.
Sesshomaru slants him a look that would have Ijichi pissing himself, but he's not Ijichi and it will take a lot more than a couple of glares or threats of violence to make him fear anyone. Satoru rolls his tongue along the roof of his mouth as he notices a flyhead hanging on a woman's arm. Its eyes widen at the sight of him. There is always a surge of new curses around the holidays with all the negative emotions that holidays seem to bring out in people.
Satoru casually stretches his arms out, letting out a large yawn as he does. His outstretched hand exorcizes the curse easily. The woman shakes her head as she mutters under her breath, something along the lines of, "rude jerk."
Satoru quirks a brow at Sesshomaru. He wants him to say something. He dares him to say something, so he has a reason to see why Sesshomaru is so feared.
"You waste time on the weak. This Sesshomaru understands why the priestess is enamored with you."
Satoru smiles. His eyes squint behind his shades. Sounds like a backhanded compliment and he isn't sure if he should thank him or tell him to fuck off. "The answer is yes or no," he says, because in the end, Satoru is a menace at heart, and he has no problem poking the demon.
"Who knew that even the strongest suffered from insecurity," Sesshomaru drawls, the boredom dripping from each word is like a punch to the gut. "This Sesshomaru will not renounce her position as an alpha in my pack. The position gives her power and protection." Sesshomaru leads them to a parked Range Rover.
"S-Sesshomaru-sama!" a bald man exclaims as he rushes from the driver's seat to open the passenger one. "Oh, the six eyes is here. Not very impressive in person," he blubbers on, somehow not tripping over his own stubby legs.
Okay—they aren't that short, but the man insulted him first.
Satoru slides into the backseat, crossing his arms as he stares at the back of Sesshomaru's head. "I take it you know where the school is?"
"That poorly hidden school," baldie squawks as he maneuvers the car in the school's direction. The driver drives like a madman, swerving around and honking at the other cars. A drastic change from the uptight Ijichi, that is for sure.
"Could have teleported there," Satoru sing songs, pulling out his phone to check for any urgent messages from Shoko. He rates this drive a 3 out of 10, mostly because of the company, and somewhat because of how erratic the drive is. They've nearly crashed at least three times now. If he didn't have infinity running at all times, then he would be concerned.
"Jaken is a sufficient driver," Sesshomaru says. The car swerves sharply to the right as Jaken lets out a wail of happiness that sounds like a cat dying. Satoru opens his mouth and then promptly shuts it. His phone lights up before it vibrates.
It's bad news, he thinks. Shoko never calls him unless something awful has happened. Now, Kagome, on the other hand, Shoko calls for the most mundane things like whether she should eat the same salad for dinner as though eating one healthy meal will cancel out all the damage she's doing to her lungs.
"What happened?" he asks, not bothering with meaningless greetings.
"Cho is gone," Shoko replies. She inhales, probably taking a drag from her cigarette. Shoko's up to three packs a day. He'd tell her to find another vice, but the life of a sorcerer is short and with all the shit that Shoko sees, it's a miracle that she hasn't snapped yet.
His chest constricts. Those three blunt words confirm what he already figured from Sesshomaru's reaction. It makes little sense. Tsumiki is still a comatose state, so this must not be the same curse. "You lost a coma patient?" He shifts in the seat, throwing one leg over the other. His hand grips the phone tighter. "I know you cheated your way through medical school, but…"
Sesshomaru tilts his head back. Jaken slows down and makes a turn at the next light, pulling into a convince store parking lot.
"Hilarious." Shoko scoffs, the sound harsher through the phone. "She must have walked out. We would have been alerted if something snuck into the school. Maybe she went looking for her parents or something. She might not believe that they are gone. Trauma affects everyone differently."
"That's a long walk from the school," he says, catching the look Jaken sends Sesshomaru. "Call me if she turns back up." He ends the call. "Alright, what do you know?"
"Naraku wouldn't have attacked your clan without an escape plan," Sesshomaru says. "The priestess has clearly become weak in light of her new domestic endeavors."
"Fuck off."
"Don't you dare address Sesshomaru-sama with such foul language! You—you!"
"The half breed is most likely still alive. What his objective is, is cause for concern. Does the priestess have the jewel?"
He saw Naraku die. Saw the fear in his eyes when he couldn't escape the veil. Saw the finality in his body language as he accepted his fate and now Sesshomaru is saying that Naraku is somehow still alive. Satoru calls bullshit. When he kills someone, they stay dead. No exceptions.
"It merged with her. Let's pretend that Naraku is still alive just for funsies. He's never made a direct move to take Kagome. If that was his objective, then he could have tried a long time ago."
Like during the exchange event.
"Yakeru's sister took Kagome because of the baby and she knew of the jewel. Maybe the Shikon was huge in your world, but it doesn't seem to be that much of a threat here." He scratches his cheek. "Well, I'm supposed to be looking for a jewel that no one has ever seen before," he adds as an afterthought. He's tempted to have Megumi create a PowerPoint for him just so he can keep with who knows what. There are far too many players in this and far too much misinformation.
"Back to the estate," Sesshomaru commands. Jaken backs out of the parking spot and drives around the building. Satoru frowns when Jaken cuts the engine. He blinks at the familiar feeling of being transported in an instant. "Come," Sesshomaru says, striding forward, but Satoru is still stuck on how he can reach out and feel like he's touching the clouds.
Seriously? His estate was in the freaking sky? And did they just leave the car behind? How wasteful.
"Fancy place." He whistles. Satoru likes to think that the guards straighten themselves at the sight of him and not because of Sesshomaru. The gated doors swing open.
"Sesshomaru-sama," the guards greet, bowing. The glamor fades away from Sesshomaru and Jaken.
"Oh, Jaken, you should have kept the human disguise," Satoru complains, looking down at him. What was he? Some kind of imp with green skin? If he had seen him out on the street, he honestly would have thought that Jaken was a curse and not a demon.
"How dare you! I will have you know—"
"Jaken, go prepare the north wing for the priestess and her mate," Sesshomaru kicks Jaken, sending him flying. No one bats an eye. Perhaps Jaken and Ijichi have more in common than he first thought.
"We aren't staying with you."
"How do you plan on keeping the priestess safe from any human attacks? Or worse, you could have taken this Cho home with you, and then what?" Sesshomaru keeps walking. "You cannot always be by her side and the priestess would hesitate to strike down a child."
Kagome is friends with this guy?
"And you would?" He pays no attention to the elegance of the estate that really should be classified as a castle with how over the top everything is. He'd nearly forgotten that he is dealing with demons here, and no matter how much glamor they put on, it doesn't change what they really are. Almost as if Sesshomaru could feel him judging, Sesshomaru looks over his shoulder.
"You dealt with assassins as a child."
He did. His father and uncle thought it built character if he took care of them himself. His hands were stained before he even lifted a finger to exorcise a curse.
"Doesn't make it right," Satoru replies, pushing the memories away and stuffing them down into a box with a lock and chain. His child wouldn't be subjected to such horrors.
"Hn."
He hears the welcome sound of Kagome's laughter as they walk into a library. In the middle of the room, she's there surrounded by pillows, Yakeru, and another redhead that he doesn't know. Her face lights up when she sees him and he hates that he has more bad news to share. Satoru shakes his head.
"What up pops! Or should I call you dada?" The man waves a hand in the air. He's way too close to Kagome for comfort. His words give Satoru pause. Why would this demon refer to him as dad?
"Shippo, knock it off," Kagome says, pinching him on the cheek. "Ignore him. Did something happen with Cho?" Shippo's green eyes water over. His lips protrude out in a fake puppy dog look. Satoru wonders if this Shippo is a fox like Yakeru—they look far too much alike not to be.
"She wasn't at the school. It's possible that she tried to make her way back to the estate." Satoru strides forward, nudging Yakeru away with his foot. "But I don't think she would go back there," he says, sitting down next to her. "I doubt she even knows her way around."
The jujutsu world can be just as cruel as these demons, he thinks. Especially with how they treat women as nothing more than breeding stock and children as disposable.
"Question!" Shippo yells, leaning over Kagome and staring at him with such wonder that his skin crawls. "Can I impersonate Gakuganji and go dig around at the school?"
"How do you know the old man?"
Shippo gives him a blank expression.
Okay. Obviously, Shippo has poked around the school before. Maybe it's cocky of him, but Satoru just assumed that he was well known in the demon circles because he's the strongest.
"Depends. Are you going to be making things harder for me or harder for the geezer?"
"Satoru!" Kagome swats his arm.
"Harder for the old-timer, of course," Shippo says with a big grin. "And the Kyoto school is a little more traditional than Jujutsu High. I bet they have all kinds of stuff I can dig up." He rubs his hands together, sharing a wink with Yakeru.
Definitely a fox, Satoru thinks. Those two seem to share one brain cell. "Even if I said no, you would probably do it anyway," he replies. "We should have gone back to school and tried to retrace Cho's steps."
"How did you know about Naraku's attack?" Sesshomaru questions. His eyes flicker over to Kagome and then back to Satoru.
"I got intel from a subordinate within the estate." Satoru jerks a thumb towards Yakeru. "And he sniffed Naraku out."
"Hn."
"Oooh, I can translate," Shippo exclaims. He clears his throat. "What Sess is saying is that you guys are stupid to think that it would be that easy. Except for Kagome, because you have pregnancy brain and we love you." Shippo rubs the back of his head while Sesshomaru glowers at him. "Okay, he didn't exclude Kagome."
"And here I thought it was just his own hubris," Yakeru mutters. "I did find it strange that he couldn't escape his own veil."
"He's not working alone. They could have betrayed him," Satoru says. His mind races with the possibilities. Those curses took some of the cursed womb paintings, a scroll on the Shikon, and the few fingers of Sukuna that they had in their possession. Were they trying to boost their own power? "He was there when the curses attacked the school."
"Maybe he wants to create a new special grade or resurrect Sukuna?" Shippo throws out there. "What?"
"I can see resurrecting Sukuna," Satoru says, "but creating a new special grade?" He shrugs. It takes a considerable number of negative feelings to create a curse, let alone a special grade. "I don't see what this has to do with Cho."
"Cho is dead," Sesshomaru says with that monotone voice that Satoru is coming to hate. "Clearly, taking Kagome is not his objective."
"So, he's doing it for shits and giggles?"
"Hn."
"The Shikon," Kagome starts, "are there consequences if I were to make a wish on it?"
"Yes and no," Yakeru says after a beat. "Could you wish for anything? Yeah, you could wish for Sukuna's revival or even for all the curses to be wiped out. You wouldn't fall over dead because of a wish, but there would still be some consequences for everyone else." Yakeru glances at Sesshomaru and then at Shippo.
Dread pours into Satoru's gut. "Gonna, take a wild guess and say that someone has made a wish on the jewel before Kagome came along. What happened?"
"Nothing too bad," Yakeru says with fake cheeriness. "The wish only created curses."
A/N: This chapter felt like pulling teeth. Thank you everyone for your support :) Question, what do you think Naraku plan was/is? Hope you all have a great weekend and if you haven't already, there is a new fanfic out. Hoping for lots of wonderful stories.
