"And that is how you make a flower crown!" Rin chirped happily, holding it up for Kenshin to see.
"Ooh, very good, very good. And why are you making these?" she asked with a tilt of her head.
"Have you not seen Lord Sesshoumaru wearing one?" she asked.
"This one has not. He agrees to wear them?"
"You put them on his head while he's not looking!" she said in a peal of giggles.
"You INSUFFERABLE women should be ashamed of yourselves! Making something so UNDIGNIFIED for your Lord!" Jaken sqawaked, crossing his arms.
"Oh come on, Master Jaken." she promptly put one on his head. Kenshin began to laugh behind her hand, and Jaken squealed angrily. "It makes you look very cute!"
"HOW DARE YOU!" Jaken screamed, promptly flinging it off his head. "I'll have you know that I am Lord Sesshoumar- GAHK!" he made a noise as a stone collided with the side of his head.
Kenshin and Rin rose to their feet. While Kenshin immediately gave a respectful bow, Rin hurried over to look up at him. "Lord Sesshoumaru, you're back!" Rin said happily.
"Rin." Sesshoumaru said, but his golden eyes lifted to Kenshin. "Come." he said, and then turned and walked away. Kenshin and Rin immediately followed suit, but Jaken had stayed on the ground a moment longer, lamenting his head injury. Until- "WAIT FOR ME, LORD SESSHOUMARU!"
The forest of spiders…
This forest was dark, carrying a damp smell of rotting meat through the air. Jaken and Sesshoumaru seemed relatively unphased, whilst Rin had her hands clamped over her nose and Kenshin looked uncomfortable. Above them, hanging from the tallest trees, were cocoons of what could only be identified as a spider's wrapping. And inside of them… Kenshin shuddered to think.
"What are we doing here, Lord Sesshoumaru?" Rin asked, and silently Kenshin was thankful that she asked. Kenshin did not want to be the one to ask.
"Stay silent, Rin." Sesshoumaru said firmly, and then they came to a stop. Sesshoumaru's head tilted upwards as a voice resounded through the forest.
DOG OF WEST. WELCOME. HAVE YOU PICK UP SILK?
"Must you ask questions to which you already know the answer?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"MAKE SURE DOG OF WEST. YOU ASK FOR SILK. WE GIVE SILK." the voice resounded, and then a being descended down from the canopy of leaves above. This figure was… a spider. It had a very fat back-half of the body, but towards the front the naked figure of a female jutted out. It had eight eyes fixed on its grotesque face, and it's mouth had no lips, but only two fangs jutting out of its mouth. When it spoke, one got the unwelcoming sight of rows of gnarled, sharp teeth. "YOU BRING PAY?"
"Hmph," he noised, his right hand digging into the sleeve of his left and tossed a small sack. One of the four arms easily caught it and brought it to its face.
"YES. EYES OF DEAD HUMAN. GOOD." And then a small silken sack dropped in front of Sesshoumaru, who reached out and took it. "GOOD BUSINESS WITH YOU. DOG OF WEST. GIVE REGARDS TO YOUR BROODMARE."
"Tch. Let's go." he said and turned away, leading them out of the forest. But on the way out, Kenshin got this odd feeling that they were being followed. And sure enough, a quick glance over her shoulder revealed that behind them, in the trees, hundreds of glowing red eyes were staring out at them. Hungrily.
"It is a good thing we were with Milord. The demon spiders love human meat." he cast Rin and Kenshin an odd glance. They had made their way back to where they left A-Un. Once they reached it and Rin scrambled on his back, Sesshoumaru turned and tossed the sack to Kenshin. She caught it, surprised.
She proceeded to open it, and stared at it in shock. It was a gorgeous red kimono- a very traditional one. A deep red color with the same pattern as Sesshoumaru's lotus sewn into it at random places. It was gorgeous. Her current attire was ratty and torn– having been half sewn together after Sesshoumaru cut through it. Her face went red, and she gave him a deep bow.
"This one is eternally grateful, Lord Sesshoumaru, that she is."
"Hmph." he turned his back. "I cannot have you traveling with me looking like a walking corpse." he said and began to walk away.
"You have received a favor from Milord!" Jaken shrieked. "You should consider yourself fortunate! That means he has taken a liking to you! Silk from the spider demons is self-healing." Jaken demonstrated by using the staff of two heads to set a small piece of it on fire, to which he quickly put out. The charred, burnt silk quickly began to heal itself, returning to a gorgeous color. "The value of this is immeasurable."
"Wow! It's so pretty!" Rin chimed, then grabbed Kenshin's hand. "C'mon, let's go put it on!"
"H-hey, wait!"
And then Rin dragged her off.
Sometime later…
Kenshin emerged from the tree-line, blushing a bit. The kimono fit her absolutely perfectly, and the colors had really brought out the shade of her hair and the violet eyes. She looked like an entirely different person when she was dressed like this. Why, the ribbon it even came with blended in seamlessly with her hair. It was… something else.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, look!" Rin called out, Jaken turned to look, and slowly, Sesshoumaru's eyes did too.
"W-what? Is that you, Battousai?!" Jaken squawked.
Sesshoumaru said nothing. His eyes lingered on her for a moment, and Kenshin fidgeted. It was very unlike her to wear something so… formal. She usually only really wore things of that nature when disguising herself for an assassination. Her violet eyes eventually rose from her feet, clad in geta, and met his gaze.
"It suits you."
Kenshin's face, marred by that scar, lit up into a smile.
… However…
There was a blur of motion, Kenshin's eyes had caught it for the briefest of moments, and her expression quickly switched. That smile melted from her face, and she had but a moment to understand what had happened. She turned, her left hand raising, and then it grasped the hand that was attacking her. However, the same moment that her hand closed in around the wrist, she noticed that a string of seemingly green energy had wrapped around the blade of what seemed to be a sword.
On the other end of that sword was a young man with brown hair, eyes that were lightly stained blue, and a very wide smile. "Wow!" He chirped happily, pushing back to push off Kenshin's hand and leave the sword in the grasp of the whip of light. "You are really really fast!"
"YOU HAVE SOME NERVE!" Jaken shrieked. "TO TRY AND ATTACK SOMEONE IN THE PRESENCE OF LORD SESSHOUMARU!"
"He's a loud one, isn't he, Battousai?" Seta asked, a smile on his face, his eyes almost closed.
Kenshin reached out to take the katana from Sesshoumaru's whip. She held it aloft, her right hand gripping the handle. "How do you know this one's name?" she asked.
"That's a really pretty kimono! It suits you. But I can't help but notice… it has the same lotus that Lord Sesshoumaru has on his kimono. Does that mean you're his woman?" he asked, confused.
"HOW DARE YO-"
"Silence!" Sesshoumaru said, taking a few steps forward and drawing Bakusaiga from it's sheath. "I've had enough of this talk. Who are you, boy?"
"Oh! I forgot to mention that, didn't I?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck and lightly tapping his left foot on the ground. "Hehehe! Sorry! I can't tell you that right now- but I'm the friend of someone who knows you, Battousai. And… Lord Sesshoumaru, it's nice to meet you, but you're unfortunately caught in the middle of this. My master will be happy to devour your flesh, though!"
"Devour my flesh? Hmph. You amuse me, boy, to suggest that a human could devour me." he said, raising Bakusaiga.
"Whoa! None of that!" he said, and in the blink of an eye he was gone. Appearing some distance away in a tree. His white and blue kimono lightly billowing in the wind. "We can't fight yet! We're not ready for all that! Sorry, Lord Sesshoumaru! And besides, I'm not allowed to fight. I'm supposed to fight Battousai."
"Enough of this foolishness," Sesshoumaru said, and he showed off his own speed. The distance between the boy and Sesshoumaru vanished in an instant, Bakusaiga slashing downwards. However, the sword would be met with the tree branch. The boy was gone, appearing back on the ground, between Kenshin and Sesshoumaru.
Kenshin took that time to attack- leaping herself into the air with speed and a great deal of height;
"Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu; Ryutsuisen- zan!" she bellowed at the last second, turning the tip of the blade downwards, aiming for a downward stabbing attack. However, before Kenshin could really see what was happening, the blade that she was aiming downward had been sheathed. The boy had moved, sheathing the sword. The bottom of which had slammed into the ground, and the boy had taken a half-step backwards.
Jaken made a noise. Rin looked surprised. Whereas Kenshin simply looked on in awe. She hadn't even seen him move. The next thing she knew, the sword was tugged out of her grip, and the side of which was slammed into her face, sending her sprawling into the dirt.
The very next second, Sesshoumaru was on them again, bringing Bakusaiga down into a slash for the boy. He merely stayed smiling, tapped his foot again, and disappeared. The sword meeting empty air.
"You guys are really tough! I see why my Master is so worried about you." he said, poking his cheek. "What to do… what to do…" he asked, thinking. "Oh! I know! Since you guys gave me a bit of fun, I'll tell you my name! I'm Sojiro the Tenken! Nice to meet'cha! You'll be meeting my master soon enough, and if you fight as badly as you did now, he'll cut you up and eat you like sushi." he nodded, and then waved. "Gotta go now, bye!" As quickly as he was there, he was gone.
Rin had run to check on Kenshin, who had been knocked to the ground- her left eye bleeding from the impact. It was already swelling. Jaken was squawking about the insolence of such a human, and Sesshoumaru looked annoyed. He sheathed bakusaiga, and turned to look at Kenshin.
"This one is fine, Rin-dono. You should not worry about me, that you should not." she assured the girl, and then looked up to meet Sesshoumaru's eyes. Violet met gold, and said a single thing.
"This one requires a sword."
