Chapter 14
Gina was well-versed in the world of humans. Most youkai she knew tended to turn their noses up at the creatures since in terms of power, they're vastly inferior in comparison. However, what many daiyoukai didn't know was that what they lacked in power, many ningen made up for in pure wickedness. She couldn't imagine many daiyoukai doing half of the things the worst humans did, because most of her kind had such a terribly unshakable sense of honor. They'd gain what they wished on their own power, on display for all the world, but Gina guessed that because humans didn't have the sort of patience that came with a long lifespan they couldn't really wait around until they'd acquired power sufficient enough to challenge people face to face.
Of course, Gina's time with humans had shown her that the ones who weren't nearly unrivaled in their cruelty may often be ones unrivaled for other characteristics. Again, Gina would attribute it to their short lifespan - perhaps humans have centuries worth of emotion compressed into a short-lived body, so that they feel absurdly strongly in the little time they have? She had seen rage the likes of which she'd never once witnessed in daiyoukai - usually there was nothing that could so easily invoke one's rage, and even them they were careful with their control over it. She had only just been starting at the Western shiro when news of its Lord dying in his haste to reach his human second wife reached the ears of its inhabitants, but she remembered how stoically the Lady had taken to the news. Gina sometimes would image what would have happened to their home had Kimi let all that she felt be displayed in her actions; rage from being so defiled by association, betrayal for loosing her mate's love, embarrassment for the hanyou child that would run amok untamed (unlike the pride of their shiro, the purebred inu Lord). Gina imagined that if Kimi had been more human-like, she might have hunted down Izayoi and Inuyasha and executed them herself. She might have gone further, seeking to remove all who thought her lesser for allowing her great mate to fraternize with a ningen.
Of course, negative emotions weren't the only ones they felt so strongly. She had seen levels of love and devotion many daiyoukai would be caught dead before expressing. Daiyoukai often perceived loyalty as their expression of love, but Gina knew for humans it wasn't always the same. She'd seen new mothers gouge out their own eyes when their children were slaughtered in silent, bold defiance of being told by the kami to live on and watch a world without their progeny. She'd heard stories of some of the ningen rulers who would forsake their entire land for love, and she'd heard of others that built empires just to protect that one spark of love that they coveted.
There were few benefits to annually traveling around in the human world, but one of them was undeniably watching and trying to understand the way they expressed themselves. Gina wondered, all stars and sparkles in her eyes, what it would be like to hold her heart out to strangers and trust that they wouldn't take a dagger to it like some humans did.
Though she was currently wondering, all dead eyes and exasperation, what it would be like to openly let yourself be perceived as a complete and utter idiot.
Of course, it wasn't all of the merchants she was currently traveling with that she thought of in this way; Daisuke at least seemed capable of reading situations well. It was the others she found herself eager to get away from. Kyo was tolerable if he was anywhere from dead drunk to just slightly left of sober (why the hell did he feel the need to drink so much, by the way?), but when he had nothing in his system he was brash and crude and generally a pain to be remotely near. Banko was Kyo's opposite, which at first she hadn't found a problem with. The problems arose whenever Kyo mentioned something that rubbed wrong against Banko's slightly-too-good ideals and then the other side of that man woke up, arguing to protect his beliefs. Again, not technically a bad thing, but Gina just wanted to get home without the sounds of two people bickering attacking her senses every seven steps. Lastly there was Goro, and Gina was quick to conclude the whispery man had no personality or courage to call his own. Like a weak sapling, he swayed wherever the strongest wind pushed him, and there were constantly two fronts from which he had to choose. Sometimes Banko pushed more and Goro squeezed out some unheard comment in his favor; sometimes Kyo shoved back so hard that Goro was eagerly taunting the third man, sounding to all the world like an echo of the first speaker.
And if she had to pick a fault to label Daisuke with, it was that he tolerated these three: All. The. Time.
Gina bit back a grumble and tried to remind herself that if she had not brought them along, then she would have had to push their cart for herself. Then she'd probably have to drag it back to the village and return it, because she knew deep down that her guilty conscience would never let her rest if she robbed humans of one of their few possessions.
They were close now to Lord Sesshomaru's shiro and her home, and Gina could practically feel the new liveliness in her step as each minute brought her nearer. She'd be able to see Chiharu, say goodbye politely to Daisuke and give the other three the boot, and then she'd be able to relax for the first time since taking on this agonizingly slow journey. Why didn't humans have stamina? They were infuriatingly easy to tire.
There was a smaller part of her mind that reminded her she'd likely encounter Megumi again once she arrived. Gina distracted herself from the new argument with thoughts of that curiously unique human she found. Megumi had something that most humans didn't, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it. Was it that pearlescent color to her irises? Or was it something else, like her weird ways of healing that Gina had never seen before? There was something that told her that this particular human was different from others she'd seen personally. Gina mulled over what this might mean. She thought first that maybe she was from a higher birth? Gina had never been to human social circles higher than the ones in most of their villages, so that might be it. The only knowledge of those kinds of humans she had came from stories, so for all she knew all high-born humans were like that. And as for the healing? Maybe that's something that had just been developed and hadn't spread to the lower standing social circles of ningen quite yet.
But, still . . .
She'd captured Lord Sesshomaru's attention, so she had to be something special. There was no such thing as an un-special human that the high and mighty demon paid attention to, Gina knew. Many people would try and counter her statement by throwing something her way about Rin being perfectly normal and average, but Gina would counter that she was curiously void of things like rage, bitterness and resentment. What the kistune figured should have been devoted to those emotions was put instead into more kindness and faith for the world, thus making the human girl that warmed the icy Lord's heart something unique to humans.
Gina was pulled from her thoughts about Rin when she began to scent something new on the wind. Lucky for her, it was blowing in her face: something that equally provided a refreshing cool to her skin, and also warned her in advance of potential people upwind of her. The kitsune slowed her pace at the front of the procession just enough so that it wasn't noticeable, but now the sounds of her steps wouldn't carry far.
"Daisuke," Gina whispered, "We'll have company soon." The man currently tasked with cart guard nodded, one hand absently palming the hilt of his blade. It was a nice thing, she guessed, but she had no real experience with blades and wasn't sure if it was something that could stand against a powerful demon.
Goro was by the cart but nearest to the kitsune (who they still had yet to identify as a demon since she kept her illusion up at all times) and was quick to speak up. "What sort of company, missus?" Gina turned quickly to send him a glare before looking back to the treeline ahead.
"Keep your voice down," Daisuke reprimanded for her, and again Gina found herself beaming at the merchant leader.
Gina ran through their options and potential encounters while she waited for the scents to grow clearer. First, potential options: fighting, abandoning the cart and fleeing, intimidation, surrender, or . . . proceeding as usual. Second, potential encounters: an enemy youkai, a friendly youkai, aggressive humans, passive humans, children, wild animals, or . . . nothing, if the scent carried from someone going in a direction they wouldn't cross paths with. Gina kept her steps as soundless as she could make them while she assigned encounters to options, remembering to factor in all that she knew thus far of the temporary company she kept.
Course, all this flew out the window once she recognized the scents. The kitsune relaxed visibly before telling the males that these were friendly scents; one she'd known for merely a day but was unforgettable, and the other of someone she'd spent decades sharing the same shiro with.
Lord Sesshomaru.
Megumi.
As soon as Gina told the group who it was likely coming their way, she saw Banko's eyes light up and Kyo's scowl deepen, while a sort of amused expression shifted onto Daisuke's face. Seeing two out of three of the others to have positive reactions had Goro cheering for the newcomers as well. It wasn't long before they arrived, but Gina found her cloaked tail twitching with anticipation. If her Lord was coming this way with Megumi, then didn't that mean whatever he needed her for was now over with? She wondered if the woman was still blind. She got her answer sooner or later when the two figures in question came out of the foliage and into sight.
Gina was first startled by how good the pair looked just then as they strode forward side by side. Lord Sesshomaru seemed as he usually did; flaunting his unearthly beauty, those long silvery-white strands of hair, and that trademark white kimono with the pattern of red plum blossoms. He bore his armor and swords; nothing irregular there. His pelt was still in its place over his shoulder, but the hand usually kept by the fur was extended and against the woman's back.
And the woman - Megumi - holy shit. Her midnight black hair ran free behind her back, her gleaming black strands clashing brilliantly with Sesshomaru's shining white ones whenever the wind sent locks of either's long straight hair towards the other. Her enchanting eyes, the color of which Gina had never before seen, were open but unfocused. There were still faint lines on the side of her temple where Gina remembered patching her up, but she found they didn't detract from her beauty at all. If Sesshomaru's kimono was white and faintly red, then hers was the opposite. There were delicate white patterns at the hems of the bottoms and the sleeves that were the inverse of Sesshomaru's plum blossoms. The obi across her middle was mostly black, a shade lighter than her hair. Gina realized what she hadn't exactly paid attention to before when they first met: Megumi had an impressively built figure. It certainly wasn't too voluminous, but her hips were strong and her chest curved out in a way that made Gina, who was noticeably smaller, faintly envious. She walked with a grace that seemed to come naturally, and just the sheer upgrade in kimono quality seemed to be enough to label her cleanly as someone of equal status as the pristine male beside her.
What a pair, indeed.
Gina caught the last of their conversation as it died out, and was startled by what she heard. The ever-stoic Lord Sesshomaru, Killing Perfection, Lord of the Western Lands and first son of the great Inu no Taisho, was . . . describing the birds he saw to Megumi?
. . . And smiling softly as he did?
Gina was saved moments before dropping her mouth open by Banko's unnecessarily loud voice. "Madarame-san!" he called, and then he was abandoning his place at the cart to rush past the kitsune and towards the woman. She turned in his direction, but not exactly; she was still blind, then.
"Ah," she responded as she fumbled for the name that came with the voice, "er . . . Banko?"
"Yes!" he agreed, a little too enthusiastically in Gina's eyes. She shifted her gaze to see what the daiyoukai would do in response to the quickly approaching woman and she certainly didn't have to wait long. Before Banko could even get halfway towards Megumi, Lord Sesshomaru had shifted ever-so-slightly so that all of his piercing gaze was settled onto the human male. Banko froze once he realized he was being watched; and even stepped back warily when the Western Lord's eyes narrowed in either distaste or a warning. Gina imagined that if Banko was a youkai with a tail, it would certainly be in between his legs by now and his ears would be flat against his head.
Gina snorted faintly. Omegas, she thought, pose no threat to an Alpha.
The kitsune healer was pleased when the only human with sense stepped forward to reclaim his wayward man, greeting the inu with the proper respect as he did. This was exactly why she approved of Daisuke; he didn't have to know who someone was to understand where he placed on the food chain in their presence.
So Gina was surprised faintly when Daisuke not only paid the respects allocated to his superiors to Sesshomaru-sama, but to Megumi as well. At first she couldn't understand why, but then it clicked as Megumi received his sentiments with practiced ease.
Practiced. Ease.
Megumi Madarame was clearly used to being treated so highly; she walked like a hime would, showed no doubt when she stood next to a shiro lord, and breezed through the short interchange as if she expected it to happen. Gina begrudgingly had to give credit to Daisuke for figuring it out before she did; perhaps there were humans more perceptive than youkai. At the same time, she had to chastise herself for missing something so distinct - why had it taken a change of clothing for her to realize it?
A little belatedly she realized that she should be paying respects to her Lord as well. Quickly but not hurriedly so Gina approached the pair - surprised briefly that her mind just lumped them together instead of separately - and bowed to the daiyoukai. "Sesshomaru-sama," she greeted. Then she shifted, eyes low. "Madarame-san."
"Gina?" Despite the questioning nature in Megumi's voice, it was fairly clear what answer she anticipated. Gina wasn't particularly surprised that she figured the kitsune would be with the humans since she had bought all of their merchandise, and she went a step further and guessed that Sesshomaru had made it known that Gina served as a healer in his shiro. Regardless, Gina confirmed Megumi's suspicions, telling her that she was indeed who Megumi had guessed.
Gina was soon to realize yet another curious thing; Sesshomaru was not personally escorting Megumi back to the village since their business was finished - he was taking her on a brief journey instead. Gina practically balked; rare was the day when Sesshomaru did things like this. In fact, Gina could think of exactly one other time that someone had told the Western Lord they wanted to go somewhere and he actually agreed to go with, and that last time had been when Rin wanted to get away from Kimi and her let's get Rin hitched up phase.
But the discovery that made Gina's mouth drop open and made her head dart to look between the two of them came a little later, when Sesshomaru made his intention to proceed on their way, alone, clear in no uncertain terms. That she had anticipated from the inu, but she hadn't anticipated Megumi countering his decision by expressing a desire to camp for the night with the group to, as she called it, "catch up." Then Gina had started questioning everything she thought she knew about the daiyoukai when rather than shut her down completely, he compromised with her and agreed to take a short break here before continuing on their way.
What bothered her more was that Daisuke didn't seem to be as shocked as she was. A quick glance to the other males showed her that Goro couldn't care one way or the other, Kyo was trying painfully obviously to look like he wasn't interested (even though he kept sending guilty glances to the side of Megumi's face where Gina'd heard he clocked her), and Banko seemed caught between excitement for the extended stay of the girl and some poorly veiled jealousy since Megumi kept rather close to Sesshomaru.
With a sigh, Gina resigned herself to the fact that whatever it was, she'd either have to figure it out herself, ask Daisuke what he figured it was, or worse - ask Megumi or Sesshomaru. Well, at least she'd figured one thing out about the curious human woman; she certainly must be a hime. And with that discovery came other conclusions: surely her healing methods were something only taught to high-born ningen, and that would at least partially explain why Sesshomaru didn't look down his nose at her. It didn't exactly explain why she was wearing a kimono that looked like it was made to complement Sesshomaru's specifically, though.
Some things, Gina decided, were just too confusing to figure out at a single glance. And any thought of the Lord Sesshomaru she knew perhaps taking to Megumi in a way that was stronger than mere tolerance never once crossed her mind. Despite his rather recent dismissal of his prejudiced opinion of both hanyou and ningens, Gina always saw him as someone who would remain steady and sure, unchanging no matter what. In Gina's subconscious he would remain detached from the rest of the world, on an unreachable pedestal built upon his own vastly superior nature. There would never be one to come close to reaching that height; and the last thing she felt would happen would be for the unbeatable Lord to step down willingly in hopes of connecting with those people surrounding the pedestal's base. Because her Lord had what his father did not, and with that he would be immune to all but himself (and his mother, she guessed).
The last person in the world that could steal his gaze from the stars above him and towards the masses beneath his feet would be a human, and a woman at that.
Or, at least, that's what she thought.
"Where will you go after dropping off your herbs for Gina?"
She could hear the low sounds Daisuke made as he pondered, but Megumi figured that he probably only did that for her benefit.
"We already have our route established; Gina just made things a little unusual by cutting our necessary stops in Japan unprecedentedly short. With that in mind, it's likely we'll just continue our way to port and pay for passage on a ship headed towards the mainland."
"A ship, huh?" Megumi couldn't help the little smile that she felt coming on; how could she, really? Thirty bad years on the seas couldn't dismiss over five hundred years of falling in love with the gentle rocks of waves against the boat and the way the salty air settled against her skin. She was glad at least that when she'd first met the group she'd given a mostly-true cover story about having sailed plenty; as much as she was coming to enjoy Sesshomaru's company - he was a phenomenal listener (Megumi wouldn't give him too much praise, though, since she wasn't sure his ego could take much more) - the inu daiyoukai did have one flaw, and that was a lack of experience. He was easy to talk to about court life since he was raised as an heir just as she had been; he was easy to talk to about Kimi and Toga because both of them had been raised by the pair at one time or another; he was easy to talk to about her kata and preferred methods in combat; but he was not easy to talk with when it came to other things. Healing, for instance: he'd never studied intensely, and had likely never done anything more than use his saliva to help a wound (very much like a dog would) or just use his superior nature as a youkai to patch things up. Another thing, one he didn't yet know she had a past with, was torture. She doubted that someone like him had ever experienced the slow, deliberate pain and the sensation of helplessness that came from someone having that sort of power over you. If anything, he'd probably been the one administering the torture.
And lastly, there was sailing. Clearly the traveling merchants had experience on boats, but by Sesshomaru's quiet, I'm acting like this isn't a question because I've no idea what you're talking about, but if you call me out on my cluelessness I'll get all defensive way of responding when she'd talked further about life on a pirate ship, he'd never left Japan by way of the water once. She reflected warmly over the past two conversations she'd had with him about that part of her past - the first was yesterday, when she just let loose and told him nearly everything she kept close to her heart, and the second was earlier today when she'd been caught grumbling about the general "lack of pizazz" freshwater had, and the privately curious inu ended up making a comment that ended with her spiraling down into a mostly one-sided talk about her first love, aka the ocean.
As her thoughts turned back to that particularly lovely life she lived as a morally decent pirate (at least, she figured she had been), Megumi found herself wondering more about these merchants she'd stumbled upon. "Do you travel this route annually, or is this your first time?"
Daisuke chuckled lightly. "I've been doing this since I was a boy," he told her, and she could hear traces of that same affection she carried in her own voice when she spoke of those past things she had enjoyed. "I've got some partners by mainland ports, so I collect some stuff they get in from bigger ships and then cart it back here to Japan to sell where the stuffs hard to come buy."
Megumi made a thoughtful noise. "Partners? I never really met many humans like that at the ports I stopped in." Course, Megumi had been associating herself with youkai.
"Oh, I never said they were human," Daisuke conceded. "I'm fairly sure Koma is some sort of youkai, but she's fair with her business and that's too hard to come by for me to complain."
Megumi started at the name, because she had an inkling they were thinking of the same person. "Koma, you said? My ship regularly stopped at a port with a merchant there with the same name. Short brown hair, greenish-yellow eyes, scar on her cheek?"
"That's her."
She wanted to smile; the world seemed so small, really, if she could so easily find connections like this with some of the first strangers she encountered. Megumi had met with Koma many times over her years as a pirate - she was, in fact, a demon - and Koma happened also to be the youkai that came to look for Shimuzi when she hadn't shown up at the regular rounds for three decades. Megumi owed a lot to Koma for it, but the youkai had always insisted any sort of thank-you gift was unnecessary.
"When does your route take you to Koma next, factoring in your shortened stay in Japan?" As Megumi waited for Daisuke to come up with an answer, she wondered what Sesshomaru was doing. The clearing they'd come across Gina and the others in wasn't very large so she had little doubt that Sesshomaru would be able to hear her regardless of where in it she wandered. Her ears, though, were painfully similar to a human's, so she was rather at a loss.
"Praying for peaceful waters, we should arrive there within the next few months. She's our next stop, you know. Likes to be the first to suck up our profit after our big sell here."
"Then, can you do something for me?" She heard a sort of grunt that sounded almost like confirmation, so she plowed ahead. "When you get to Koma, can you give her a message telling her that Shimuzi's First Mate found what she was looking for in Japan?" There was no need to use the fake name that each captain got when they took over the ship, since Koma was as close with the Captain as Megumi was. She'd be sure to give the message to Shimuzi, too, when she'd next return to that port. It would probably be a few years, but Megumi figured that time to be trivial to the centuries Shimuzi promised to wait to hear back from her. And perhaps in a few years she'd even be ready to pay a visit to the woman who taught her nearly all that she knew.
"If you'll pardon me for never delivering a share of our herbs to you, then I'll do it for you." Megumi had to hold back a laugh when she heard Daisuke's condition for accepting her request.
"Thank you," she told him sincerely.
She could practically picture the way Shimuzi's face would relax into something that conveyed her boundless relief and happiness that Megumi was doing well so far without her as soon as Koma passed on what Daisuke had been promised with.
I'll return to you eventually, Megumi silently promised her Captain. Be it for a year or twenty, I will. I didn't make it in time for Toga, but I've found Kimi again. What's more, there's . . . someone I want to show you.
And almost as if her thoughts had summoned him, Megumi could suddenly feel Sesshomaru standing next to her again, and the breeze carried his scent to where she stood. She breathed in appreciatively of his clear, earthy scent, and thought she might grow to yearn for it in much the same way that she did for the sweet tang of salt that the ocean gave her.
If Shimuzi could see her now, she might tease her, saying something like "What about that boy with the curly hair and that forearm tattoo, Megumi?"
Megumi smiled inwardly, unaware that it was carrying over to the outside, also unaware of the way the daiyoukai was currently watching the smile that grew on her face when he reached her side. "Oh, but Captain," Megumi would counter, "If Curly Boy had even an ounce of the raw masculine appeal that this guy emanates from his voice alone, I would have been a pirate deserter long, long ago."
Megumi was wrenched from her strange turn of thoughts when the person attached to the voice she'd been thinking about spoke to her. "We should leave now," he insisted, "to make a timely arrival at our destination." Megumi blinked away the last of her thoughts before nodding, Sure, he had a nice voice, but Kimi's stories about the daiyoukai had made it more than obvious that his interests lasted no longer than a night, and even then were very few and very, very far between. She was more than content to keep things this way - part of her was still trying to remind her that she'd only just decided to let him past her guard and not to be so damn hasty, and another part was reminding her that the last person to look at her in a way that was clearly beyond platonic had had his ear ripped off and his entire body reduced to shreds inside a dozen and a half different stomachs.
"Lead the way," Megumi forced herself to say. The relaxed smile she hadn't remembered having faded away as she reminded herself she wasn't on a trip to bond with the inu daiyoukai; she was on a journey to take care of the things plaguing both of them. His hand went over her kimono again, and she gave her parting remarks to the five they'd run into, and then she was resuming their second day of travel towards the place where she first learned the smell of saltwater.
She wondered what sort of combination saltwater would make with pine and petrichor.
It had taken Gina and the others practically two weeks to make it to the shiro with their weighed down cart (which was weighed down further with all the clothes, food and sake they'd purchased from the village), and it had taken Megumi and Sesshomaru two days when they flew fast. This time, making the journey in the opposite direction and walking far more efficiently than they had the first time (because someone decided to actually help Megumi this time), the Dragon of Timidity and the Lord of the West found themselves a day away from the village after just five days of walking.
See how easy things could be when certain people - ahem, inu daiyoukai specifically, - didn't drag others along by having them holding onto the ends of their pelts? Useless male pride.
It didn't go over Megumi's head how each day since that night before their journey, Sesshomaru seemed inclined to open up more and more. She didn't catch him saying "hn" as much, and the times when they didn't talk for hours didn't feel as awkward to Megumi as they had felt when she had first set out with the demon. And though Megumi still sent little jabs his way, she had noticeably stopped doing it as often. It wasn't really necessary anymore unless one of the topics she'd yet to divulge information on came up; after all, it was part of the reflexes she had when she had to put clear distance between her and someone else in conversation. She hadn't expected there to be much talk about herself after she'd practically dumped her whole backstory on him the first day, but he'd been surprisingly interested in the subject. She noticed that he would take anywhere from several hours to a day to mull over some of what she'd told him, and then when he seemed satisfied with all he thought he'd bring it up again, this time with more specific inquiries and whatnot.
Megumi was impressed with it, really. Not even Toga had done that sort of thing so thoroughly.
In those times where he would be content to relapse into silence to connect what he now knew of her with what he already did, Megumi was content to think as well. There were primarily three things on her mind: her sealing, the second person in that dark place she'd rescued Rin from, and the message Tenseiga had given her when she'd touched it. Megumi found that the girl in Rin's memories was curiously similar to the face she'd seen flash in her mind a fraction of a moment after the sealing. Those red eyes were unmistakable; that's how she'd come to the conclusion that it must have been the Twin Dragon of Temperament that had had a hand in sealing her. But did that mean she was the one behind what happened to Rin? And if so, that would mean it was likely Megumi would need a lot of her power in order to free Rin from the other dragon's grasp completely.
Megumi found she didn't like to dwell on that conspiracy for long, because it put an uncomfortable amount of importance on the upcoming ritual.
The other thing, though, Megumi found herself practically obsessing with. It didn't make sense to her. The message Tenseiga had tried to impart on her had taken a backseat to the stark realization of what the sword's existence meant for her, but the shock was gradually wearing off. She knew rationally that she would eventually have to confess the truth to Sesshomaru - and, she figured almost grudgingly so, Inuyasha - because any sort of bond she wished to form with Sesshomaru would be tainted faintly by the weight of what she'd done if she kept it to herself. But she wasn't ready to bring up what Tenseiga and Tessaiga meant to her just yet, or that message she'd been given, at least not until the seal was broken.
On the fifth day of their journey, when Sesshomaru had started to open up to her in turn, Megumi swore that she would tell the daiyoukai the truth after the seal was broken and no later.
They were a day away from the village where they met now, and for the most part the pair traveled in silence. Megumi had more to think about since the day before - it felt almost like Sesshomaru's tendency to reflect over the snippets Megumi fed him had now been reversed into Megumi thinking about his. He confessed to her something she'd noticed he'd been reluctant to in weeks prior: the shapes and colors of his markings. He'd told her in even tones about the indigo crescent moon on his forehead above his eyebrows, and the reddish-purple twin slashes on either of his cheeks. He said that they were also in other places, like his wrists. Megumi hadn't asked why he mentioned other places as being plural. Apparently he had essentially permanent red on his upper eyelids too, and as a practical woman who'd never found value in wasting time painting her face Megumi found that particular marking especially useful.
He told her more than that though, and it was this that had her pondering the day after. She remembered a hazy moment with Toga as he told her that for the daiyoukai rulers of the four cardinal lands marking someone of royal blood was a sacred thing. He'd never told her what exactly that entitled; all she knew was that there was a ceremony, but she'd never take part of it because she wasn't an actual child of Kimi and Toga.
Of course, there was always mating . . .
Sesshomaru told her that each mark held significance in a daiyoukai's life. For most, their marks were supposed to be a combination from both parents, to boast the strong combination of blood in the child. Marks were given when children were first able to morph into a humanoid form; it was a sign that the child was strong, and accepted by its parents.
Megumi had realized with a start that Sesshomaru must have had the ceremony at an alarmingly young age. She felt for him once she learned that the ceremony was mind-bendingly painful until the marks settled into the skin.
The ones that followed after the parental ones were optional, and represented a daiyoukai's surpassal of several milestones. Sesshomaru had told her that he had chosen to take many of his, in the form of those twin slashes. Megumi had been equal parts impressed and surprised to learn that including the ones on his face, the Western Lord boasted eight pairs of reddish-purple streaks.
She listened with eagerness as he confided in her which pivotal moment in his life each of the other six sets represented: his first hunt, first battle, first kill, coming of age, obtaining the place intended for him as heir, and finally, starting the formation of his own pack with his making of Rin his ward. He had grown quiet for a while, and Megumi guessed it was because he was remembering all those moments. Apparently, he wished for no more, despite there being things he had yet to do.
"What, there's more?" Megumi asked, incredulous. Couldn't he just get a scroll and a stamp whenever one of these many events passed him by?
"Yes," he confirmed. "In my eagerness to display my achievements, I chose many less important milestones to redo the ceremony for. It is for this that I will not add more."
Megumi pondered this. "So then, what kinds of things could you still get markings for?"
His palm had remained sure against her back as he talked, and though his voice was open she couldn't guess at what was going on in his head as he spoke. "The taking of a mate, and the siring of the first pup are two more."
Megumi thought more about those things as they walked in silence. A delayed moment later, she remembered the way he had phrased things. "Sesshomaru," she started, "you never said that you wouldn't pass those milestones, just that you didn't want the markings associated with them. Does that mean . . . that you plan to mate and have children eventually?"
"Pups," he correctly absently, before making some sort of huffing sound softly. "As the Lord of the West, it is my duty to carry on my line. The mating of a daiyoukai is likely to be political, but it is a necessary thing."
At that, Megumi found herself frowning. "That blows."
"Kimi and Toga courted without affection at first," he told her, in that curious way of his where he wouldn't exactly counter her claims directly.
Megumi rolled her eyes. "I hardly doubt they're the standard."
"Hn."
They lapsed back into silence, until Megumi couldn't keep the new question she'd formed unasked. "What if you never come to love your mate like your parents did?"
Sesshomaru made that indignant grunt of his. "I have made it clear to my mother that I refuse to court someone who I do not believe I could grow to respect."
"Respect is different than love, Sesshomaru."
He hadn't said anything back, but she felt she knew why he couldn't after she'd contemplated that conversation the next day. He hadn't denied that any mate he took was likely to be for political reasons, and from everything she knew about him he'd likely never held affection for someone in his life. The great Sesshomaru, having embarrassing stories about a crush? It didn't seem likely. So considering that all the women he was likely to court not as the Western Lord instead of himself had already been around for several centuries and he'd yet to bat an eye in their direction, it was unnervingly likely that pattern would continue through to his mating.
For some reason Megumi couldn't explain, she wished that the inu beside her would never take a woman if that was to be his fate.
Author's Note:
So I'm aware that that's not exactly how they get their markings, but 1) it's my story and 2) I thought it put a cool sort of depth to the whole thing. Also, did Rumiko ever actually explain them? If so then I missed hearing about it, whoops.
The story is coming up on some more interesting things, so sorry if this chapter wasn't particularly engaging. Please continue to leave those lovely reviews for me! I take each word to heart and your feedback helps me refine my writing.
That's all for now.
