Chapter Twenty-Four: Faux Tutor

"Speaking"

Thinking/Memories

Special Author Shoutout to XNightzxDayX: Thank you for your continued support and reviews. This chapter was only made possible because of you, and the recent review you left me. It warmed my heart and made want to write a chapter just for you.

"Lady Kasumi!" Usui's shrill cry of joy pierced Kasumi's ear as a guard helped her off of Ah-Uhn. The yellow kimono oni latched herself onto her lady, squeezing her tightly against her body. "Oh, milady, it has been dreadful around here without you." Usui pulled away from her embrace just long enough to look at Kasumi. "It was beginning to feel as if you had never been here at all."

"Well, I sure hope not," Kasumi said, the guards behind her emptying Ah-Uhn's saddlebags before removing the saddle so the poor beast could rest. "If one aspect of the house is out of place already…" She trailed off leaving the inclination in the air and causing Usui to shake her head and laugh.

"No, I believe you managed to drill the expectations of the house into everyone's head so well that no one will ever let it go to ruins like it was before." She assured her, Kasumi's smile curving her lips.

"Good, I have so much more to do now," her heart squeezed a little at the thought of everything she would need to do and that it meant she would have to set aside her wants again in order to make Sesshomaru proud. "I need a trainer and a proper tutor." She said hastily, entering the Inu Dai Yokai estate and being greeted by an absurd amount of ladies in waiting. "Usui, I trust you can manage that for me?" Kasumi looked back at the oni only to see the uncertainty there.

"I may be able to manage a trainer, milady, but I don't know so much about the tutors. However, I am sure there is someone in the house who will be able to help me in that regard." She tried to give her lady a reassuring smile and though it took Kasumi a moment, she did eventually give a grateful look in return.

"Excellent, have the others bring my things to my rooms at once, I'm going to check in with the house ladies and the groundskeepers."

"But, milady, that wing of the house is forbidden to others…" Usui's soft disapproval stopped Kasumi in her haste to get to work.

"Well, then I suppose you can take them there, and make sure the only room they go to is my own," Kasumi said giving a short nod to Usui before she parted, her now ridiculously large entourage following behind her.

"Milady has been gone for such a long time, yet she acts as if she had never even left." Usui smiles at the thought and hurried to do what was asked of her.

It took Usui less than a week to find a trainer for her lady's tessen lessons, and then another half to find a proper tutor. With all the lords and ladies of the area, Usui hadn't expected it to be that difficult to find someone willing to teach the Lady of the Western Lands, yet it seemed no one was willing to admit a halfbreed could do the job as mate of the Great Lord Sesshomaru. Many disbelieved in Lord Sesshomaru's choice and many more disbelieved in Lady Kasumi. It would be a difficult task for Kasumi to win over the other lords and would likely be a life long battle for her to hold their approvals.

Usui believed in her more than anyone. She was her biggest and loudest cheerleader and right behind her was her own father, though he was much more reticent in his support. Kasumi's trips to the kitchens didn't stop and during those small breakfasts between the three of them, Onaga gave her subtle advice and encouragements.

It was all Kasumi needed to keep her hopes up.

Once training for her started on how to properly wield her tessen, her free time became less and less. Early mornings she cleaned the western wing of the house that Sesshomaru forbade any servants from entering, and after she would make her ways to the kitchens where her and Onaga would make breakfast for them before she would part so Onaga could begin preparing meals for everyone else of the house. After eating, she would train in the yard for an hour, resume her normal duties until lunch, where she would eat with her entourage of eight ladies in waiting and six guards while her trainer would tutor her in fighting tactics. Once her meal was done, she would train with the tessen again for another hour before she would return to her duties, going to lessons she could take without a proper tutor.

Now that a week and a half has gone by, she had that proper tutor and she was anxious to meet them.

"Are you sure he is okay with tutoring me?" Kasumi asked as Usui straightened out her robes. During Kasumi's absence in the house, Usui had made orders for new robes to be made for her lady that resembled Sesshomaru's, furthering the reminder that the fox was indeed the intended for the inu lord. Red and white went beautifully with Kasumi's dark hair, the silk fabric shimmered against her white skin and refined her beauty till she looked less like a kit, and more like a woman.

"He better be okay with it, otherwise milord will have his head, as I'm sure he'll want to do with everyone else when he learns that no one else was willing to help you." Usui took Genko and Shakko and slid it gingerly into Kasumi's obi, the sleek black metal adorning her adult like fashion.
"You're probably right, but no one should do anything they don't want to simply because of fear." Kasumi lowered her arms as she was ordered to do so and Usui took a moment to look her lady in the eye.

"If only that was the way the world worked. Everyone does things out of fear. Humans live in fear of dying, and demons live in fear of the demons above them."

Kasumi tried not to argue back, almost having to physically bite back her tongue when Usui finally decided she was ready to go out and meet her tutor.

"It will be fine, milady. I'm sure of it." She began to lead her out towards the study near the western wing.

"Have you met him yet?" Kasumi asked.

"No, but I am sure everything will work out best." She assures her, opening the doors to the study, and standing aside to allow Kasumi to enter first.

Inside Sesshomaru's study were a total of four guards, guards Kasumi didn't recognize but knew to be members of Sesshomaru's house. Between the four of them was a tall, dark-haired man looking about the room in obvious admiration. She took a moment to admire the mans backside, his hair reaching well past his waist despite its tied position atop his head, the wavy locks curling around his sides. He turned his head to gaze over his shoulder, and simple earth colored eyes settled onto Kasumi. They smiled at her, warm and smooth like honey, a gentleness she had never seen look so beautiful on a man before.

"You must be Lady Kasumi," he spoke turning to face her fully and much like his eyes, his voice was warmth given sound and gentle like the softest of silk. He bowed his head to her, his bangs covering the roundness of his face for a moment before he looked back up at her.

Kasumi was trapped in his eyes, too stunned to form words as the corners of his lips tilted up ever so slightly to form a smile. There was so much kindness in this man, she could do nothing but awkwardly present herself.

"H-hello, I am Lady Kasumi Ishikawa," she bowed to him as gracefully as she could manage given her shock. A gentle chuckle had her looking up at him just to see that kind smile had turned amused.

"A pleasure, my lady. I am Lord Kagewaki Hitomi, your new tutor." He hid his amusement well in his voice, but Kasumi knew better. She had embarrassed herself already.

"H-Hitomi…? Isn't that a human household?" She observed, trying to make it seem as if she wasn't completely clueless.

"It was until the estate was destroyed by a demon I once trusted," he explained. "He may have betrayed me and my fathers name, but he did teach me a lot about demon households."

Kasumi tried not to breathe a sigh of relief and failed, Lord Kagewaki picking up immediately on it and chuckling once more.

"Relieved I am not a demon?" He asked her.

"N-not relieved, per se. More like… less intimidated. If it were a demon lord teaching me things I would be wrought with worry and fearful I would not learn fast enough." She rubbed her forehead. "With a human teaching me, I feel much more at ease in knowing I can't embarrass myself in front of one of the demon lords of this foreign land."

"It is an understandable reason to be relieved then, my lady." This time when she noticed his smile, there was only kindness she saw, sending relief washing through her once more. "Now, shall we begin?" He gestured to a spot in front of him that was only a simple empty desk, no scrolls or books, or even parchment and ink. Sensing her confusing as he sat, he spoke up. "I thought it best if we learned about each other first before we started lessons, so I can get a better understanding of what you already know."

"I…" She looked behind her, hoping Usui would be there only to discover the oni had gone, leaving her alone with Lord Kagewaki and her guards. Cautiously she sat across from him seiza style, neatly keeping her robes in place. "Very well, Lord Kagewaki."

"I think, given the circumstances, you may call me Kagewaki, my lady." He said, gesturing to one of the guards to bring them tea.

"Y-yes, of course, y-you may call me Kasumi as well then." She flushed, looking down at her lap.

"If that is what you wish, my lady, I will do so. Now," he stopped when tea was placed between them, and he began to pour her cup for her.

"I believe I should be the one doing this, Kagewaki." She mentioned and he only shook his head at her.

"Nonsense. A demon of your rank would never pour her own tea, only her lords. Everyone else is to pour hers." He explained, setting the tea kettle down and presenting her cup. "I know in human households it's much different. This tells me you must have at least grown up in one. I believe Ishikawa is the name of the Eastern Lord. What was his name again…?" Kagewaki trailed off while pouring his own tea and Kasumi felt a familiar pang in her heart.

"Kazuhiro…." She said quietly. "Lord Kazuhiro Ishikawa, Daimyō of the East."

"Yes, that's right. I take it he is your father then?" Kagewaki asked, sipping his tea.

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Kasumi looked away from the man, and when he asked her no further questions she began to explain to him the situation of her past and how she came to be the intended mate of a demon lord far from her homeland. It took hours to explain as he told her he wanted to know every detail.

She spared none and the more she told him what had happened to her, the easier it got to relax around him. She spoke to him like she did Usui, with no reservations of her behavior, as if he was just another friend to her that was willing to hear her tale. By the end of it, they had gone through two teapots and were halfway through the third.

"As you can see, Kagewaki, I'm a bit out of my element here. What I think I know about how a Lady should behave is almost the exact opposite of what is expected of a demon court woman." She sighed into her warm cup of tea.

"Now I understand why finding a tutor is so important for someone your age. I assumed you were far older than your appearance. To think, you are only twenty years of age. Not that you look older, Kasumi. You never truly know with demons." Kagewaki said causing Kasumi to smile.

"You are right, imagine my shock when I discovered my Lord Sesshomaru is over 900 years old. I truly understand now why he refers to me as a child. That's all I really am in his eyes." A bitter smile crossed her lips.

"How long have you been with him now?"

"So much time has passed between us, it feels as if no time has passed at all," she admitted with a laugh. "But with the changing of the seasons, I say it has to have been eight cycles now."

"Eight months. You two have grown attached then?" Kagewaki's gentle prodding had Kasumi flushing. While she spoke to him before about everything that's happened to her, not once did he ask any questions. She had been so detailed, there wasn't any to be had but when it came to Sesshomaru… she left out plenty.

"I would like to believe so… Maybe more on my part than his? It's hard to tell. I don't really understand demon mating customs but he continues to make claims of possession. Reminding me that I am his alone, telling me he will…" Her cheeks darkened as if what she spoke of was truly perverse. "Telling me he will cover me in his scent so every demon will know I belong to him. Yet… I cannot see him being the type of man who would truly want anyone to share his life with. I believe I am only a means of getting what he wants."

"And what do you think he wants?" Kasumi frowned at this question, looking deeper into her tea as if it had the answers to life itself.

"I believe he only wants to mate with me so that the other lords will leave him alone about marriage. I believe his only intentions with me is to act as if he is taken so that he can focus on doing what he truly wants. To kill Naraku."

"Naraku?" Kagewaki sat back, surprise in his leather worn eyes.

"Yes, he is apparently a demon worth fearing, and a demon who has made a dangerous enemy out of my lord." She explained.

"Yes, Naraku has been known to use the people he encounters, and kills everyone who stands in his way." Kagewaki sighed and this caused Kasumi to stare at him in confusion. "I never did get to mention it to yet, have I? The demon who taught me what I know, what I will teach you, is the one and only Naraku. I trusted him, but he betrayed me, brought demons into my home the possessed my father, became the sole cause as to why the demon slayer clan has been all but wiped out. He tricked them into a slaughter in my very courtyard, all so he could raid their village to get the Shikon no Tama they had." His brows furrowed to show his troubles and Kasumi gave him a sympathetic look.

"We are all guilty of trusting the wrong person once or twice in our lives, it is no fault of yours what this demon has done to your house, or to those of the demon slayers." Kasumi placed a gentle hand on top of his, and the two of them held a gentle smile together for a moment before Kasumi moved her hand away and stood. "I'm afraid I must leave now, Kagewaki." She apologized as he stood up. "I have other duties to attend to. I look forward to our future conversations and lessons." She bowed to him leaving the room once he returned it and the four guards followed behind her.

As her back was facing him, Kagewaki stood straight, his dark gaze boring into her back, and a wicked grin splayed across his lips.

And so our new game begins, Sesshomaru. What will you do once I've taken your little fox? If I was able to get so close to absorbing you when I took Rin, I wonder how far I will be able to go while I hold this kit hostage?