Author's Notes: Quick shoutout to RamecupMiso, author of Forbidden Love on this site, as one of my inspirations and an information resource for this episode. Although I've gotten a majority of my inspiration from kung fu movies, this author/user has some great facts about geisha and their lifestyle in his/her story. As always, happy reading!
Beauties of the Blade part 1
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Losing rationality when Kagome was able to pick up Tessaiga but not him or even Inuyasha at first was a painful lesson to learn. Losing Tessaiga at the cost of his arm was undoubtedly a blow to his ego. Losing to Inuyasha was easily one of the lowest points in his life. Though his defeats brought him great pain, losing to Meioshi was going to be one of the most traumatic experiences yet. He knew the woman had potential as his opponent, but this was different. When he crash-landed into the empty ravine below, he regrettably had to remember foes he couldn't beat in his lifetime. His father used to be at the top of the list throughout his journey. Though he surpassed him in power now, it took many years and trials to accomplish this. Years of walking in his father's shadow and shame, years of trying to prove himself to the court of the House of Inu, and years of angst and anguish at pursuing his ambitions only to be told he was undeserving of those ambitions all floated in his mind like a chaotic rapture of dream sequences. He still had a lot of work to do to prove his worth. Gaining Bakusaiga was only part of the work in progress. While his father granted him his wish through careful planning before his death, Meioshi gave him a painful reminder that power may bring fear and it may make one obedient and it may bring silence to a defiant mouth, but it doesn't earn respect from others. Only one other person told him that, and he's second on Sesshomaru's list of undefeatable foes.
He had no doubt that he would have to face him again in the future, but he didn't want to hear his mouth right now. He did, however, hear a twig snap and hopped up with a venomous growl sounding from the pit of his stomach. The new foe, who was now added to his list of undefeatable, was walking up to him. His eyes went blood red and his teeth elongated to start his transformation, but he noticed that she no longer carried her sword or spear. She wasn't dressed in her battle attire either. Instead, Meioshi wore a light green haori with a vine pattern embroidering the collar. It was tied at her waist and along the sleeves with deep green ribbon. Her undershirt was nontraditional in appearance. It was laced from the top of the bust to the high collar covering her neck but skintight like her battle shirt. Her beige hakama pants didn't seem to be too traditional either. They had buttons along the side surrounded by the vine embroidery, and the same design pattern was along the belt. The dark green ribbon was holding the pants in place. The bows she made to land on her hips were almost decorative. They looked like flowers and little balls of puffiness attached. It looked like dandelions were on her hips. Meioshi carried a small bucket in her hands filled with different things he couldn't readily identify, but she didn't seem to be here to continue the fight.
Angry that she was so dismissive of his abilities, he readied his claws for attack and prepared to lash out the closer she got until he heard her say, "Mushin. Bind."
Before he could react to the command, Sesshomaru was bound by her incantation again. She didn't have the sun trinket this time. Yup, definitely a new low for him. Struggling to get out of the divine prison, he bit, clawed, and sunk his head back in to try to move but he couldn't. She placed her bucket down and kneeled before him, not even watching him do this. She took out a small mat that was rolled up on the side of the bucket then two mortar and pestle sets and placed them on the mat. Sesshomaru didn't like that calm demeanor about her at all and she kept quiet while he struggled and growled the entire time. No quips, no unwanted compliments, not even an insult. Just silence. Taking out different spices and herbs, Meioshi went to work on grinding them until one bowl was filled with paste and another was more like liquid soup. A strong alcohol came out next and some small, circular cloths soaked in fresh water in a stone bowl was soon to follow. She mixed the alcohol, spicy paste, and herbal soup together and then retrieved some oil from the bucket to give the medicine mix a more pleasant smell. She took a cloth from the stone bowl, wrung it lightly, and went to touch Sesshomaru's face to clean him, but the western lord wouldn't be a stubborn old dog if he cooperated.
No, no, he had to roar, bite at her hands, and fight more. Meioshi only sighed at him, placed her hands down, and waited for him to be still again. It looked like this was going to be a while. She focused her attentions on the ravine instead while her patient had an absolute conniption fit, enjoying the bronze and gold of the sunset illuminating the waters. Meioshi did make a mental note that this was probably the most childish and dog-like she had ever seen Sesshomaru. He was normally the calm, quiet one. He never barked, raised his voice, or anything remotely as vocal as this. Other than the occasional name-calling or huffing he did, he hardly spoke either and, if he did, it was something of importance. He didn't really fight this hard either. She would just release him from the bind, if that was the problem, but he was too aggressive to be let loose. She knew he'd be upset, though, so she just waited patiently for him to return to the calm man she knew him to be... unless this is how he actually was and the calm guy was the facade.
When the western lord started to lose his breath in his fight, Meioshi returned her attention to him and analyzed his posture. He wasn't calming down but he was getting tired. Having access to only your head would do that. Chen-bi coupled with Mushin level binds was a force to reckoned with, but Meioshi could see that Sesshomaru would eventually figure out how to break the bind with time; meaning, very soon, he could be at Zanshin level binds due to his insurmountable strength. Wetting the cloth again to clean him, Meioshi reached out for his face once again only for him to start fighting again, but he made this expression that surprised her. His eyes did something that was uncharacteristic of the man she met. His mouth curved into this shape that wasn't a snarl anymore. For a distinctive moment, his claws weren't slashing at his binds... but pushing. When his roaring quieted to low gruffs, she lowered her hands experimentally to see if he even knew what he was doing. He stopped looking at her and instead focused on breaking the bind. Looking for holes, grabbing at the spears of light to shake them loose, anything he could think to do to escape. He only stopped struggling when he felt Meioshi's touch his and looked at her... just to see her smiling at him.
She shushed him gently, silencing his fight, and removed her hand from his to say, "I won't hurt you, Sesshomaru. I'm just checking for wounds." Right as he was about to speak, she interrupted him by continuing, "I know you're not a human like me. You heal faster. This won't take but a moment."
Finally, Meioshi was able to be a doctor and Sesshomaru was able to see it. That smolder she produced when she was concentrating on something was visible to him at a closer distance. She didn't touch him like she did with her imposter or the bird nest, so it wasn't as intimate but it was more than that somehow. She only had to tap at a cut with the cloth. When she reached for the medicine and went to use a different cloth to apply the mix to the cut, she gasped when she looked back at him. It was gone!
"Uwoah," Meioshi whispered, blinking at the healed wound. "Extraordinary! It closed so swiftly!" His eyes returned to their normal coloring as she marveled at his healing rate. She was harmless to him now. "I suppose I'll save this medicine for Jaken instead. I think I have a small empty bottle left here."
She dug in her bucket to sift some things around and pulled out a small brown bottle with a cork already in it. Just as she was moving to pour the medicine in it, Sesshomaru caught the smell of blood and noticed the doctor slowing her movement from pain. Quietly, he asked, "Who gave you that wound?"
Question not registering at first, Meioshi turned to Sesshomaru, who was now back to being who she remembered, and questioned, "Hm? What wound?"
"The one on your chest. You've been cut," Sesshomaru replied.
"Oh," Meioshi responding, chuckling a bit. She returned to her task before moving to clean things up. She then said, "That was me. No one did that."
"Why did you cut yourself?" Sesshomaru asked, indifferent to the information but curious to the reason.
"Punishment for the lives lost under my care," Meioshi answered, finishing up.
"That was no fault of yours," Sesshomaru responded. "You shouldn't have had to do anything, least of all that."
Meioshi chuckled at the man, making him narrow his eyes, and said, "So you were trying to defend me when Kirameku Ha told you about it. Thank you for standing up for me, Sesshomaru. Don't mind this. I decided to accept punishment for my failures when I developed my oath of medicine. I do this in remembrance of the people I had to burn when I became a doctor. I endure their pain before death to never forget it, repent as I heal to honor their journey into judgement, and forgive myself when I'm fully healed with hope that the fallen have forgiven me. This return to grace, if anything, is more like a release of my guilt. It's my most dangerous flaw."
"You've no reason to feel guilty for something else's greed or bloodlust," Sesshomaru spoke after a silence passed.
"My guilt comes from incompetence as you've put it," Meioshi said, holding a hand up to Sesshomaru's chest and lightly touching his binds with the middle finger. "Release." With the binds broken, Sesshomaru could easily attack or kill but he didn't. Instead, he simply moved to a seated position to match his rival's since she no longer had an interest in fighting for the day. She then continued, "I know I can't be everywhere simultaneously, but I can try to be more aware of my enemies and their attack methods. I didn't know that the demons I was up against could enter the living world. I didn't know they'd be able to find me. I didn't know they'd get so close to my home. But, I did learn that the snow sword was parasitic and could make others go mad. Because I didn't consider it sooner, people who were under my care were terrorized into going after it and they could have gotten it by force had I not been so careless. Even when I moved it to a safer place, someone I knew, who had access to Heiwa without interfering with my barrier, could have annihilated the entire village just to get their hands on the sword. That's where the guilt lies. No, I may not have known everything to stop those demons, but I did know something that could have killed hundreds of others. I put the public at risk, so I perform the punishment as an act of forgiveness. I serve the public. I dishonored the public. I seek grace from the public. It is how my code was born."
"Everything you do is for the House of Inu... You serve the House; you honor the House. You are a servant before you are a leader..."
"I feel guilty for putting you at risk, too, though," Meioshi said sweetly, making Sesshomaru lock eyes with her. His eyes shifted like he was asking a silent question, and the doctor answered it, "Neither you nor Jaken should have gotten involved in my silly mess, and, for a while, I felt like you when you were fighting those binds. Threatened, angry, lost, tired, confused. I had no idea why you wanted to help me or why you were even looking for me. I don't even know why you want to fight me or be my rival, but those reasons are your own. If you want to help, why pester and pick at your brain to know why? I want to help others through medicine. Why not let you help me by sword? If you want a challenge, why try to solve the riddle you alone have the answer to? I have to earn my place in life all the time. Sometimes, I plan steps ahead on things just to wind up walks behind in life. It's an ongoing riddle as is with answers that come from different places and no reasons as to why they're specifically there. Just think. If you had gotten yourself eaten, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy listening to you lose your mind in a magical cage while a calm stream was passing by on a summer's eve. And... I don't think I would have been able to stop the black wall demon without you. I'm a firm believer that everyone and everything has its purpose in this life. In those final moments, you were the answer to a centuries' old riddle and not one time did I ask why. I only asked why you felt the need to help. I didn't let my answer simply be my answer."
"Meioshi! Are you here?" a voice called.
The doctor turned away from him to listen for the voice and heard her name again. It was Bonitas. She then replied, "Coming!"
She collected her things and placed them in the bucket with a gentle smile on her face. Sesshomaru only watched her do this until she stood up and faced him again. She said, "You make a good other. One day, I want to fight you without my other power. If I can beat you as a human, then that will be my real victory. Today was just a test. Tomorrow will be the real fight. Maybe you're not just the answer to a riddle. Maybe... you're the answer to my ongoing question. Maybe you're here to tell me that I'm strong enough to fight my real enemy. If you are, then I look forward to tomorrow. Because then I'll know my nightmare is almost over. Jya! Until next time..."
With that, Sesshomaru watched her run off to meet with whoever was calling her with hope and confidence that they'd meet again for a final battle. Jaken called him sometime after she had gained a fair distance between them, but he only stood quietly and watched Meioshi, the healing dandelion seed, being chased by the setting sun and carried away by the summer breeze.
Author's Commentary Corner: Hello all! I'm just offering some responses to prior reviews. Let's see now... starting from Chapter 20 and ending at 39... *reading reviews and comments*
About Sesshomaru being moved by Meioshi's funeral rites: The difference between Shinto religion and Buddhism in regard to funeral rites in Japanese culture actually fascinated me. I don't think there are any scenes where a funeral takes place for a demon in Inuyasha, but I also don't remember there being one. I could be dead wrong (ha! No pun intended!), and I'll accept that because the most I remember is that demons were usually just obliterated in combat or they disappeared. The characters honor the fallen through a moment of silence or leaving a special item behind but that's it. Meioshi performing a dance for the fallen, especially demons, added a special layer to her character and would have added an interesting layer to the original storyline had the creators really thought of it, but I wonder if that's too deep for them given the context of Inuyasha's storyline. It's not a philosophical piece by any means. It's just a romance with a little bit of language and some nudity sprinkled in. By me being older now, I look for different topics of discussion in shows these days. I, personally, would like to see more philosophical content from Inuyasha as I am now, but it was never known for that so funeral rites wouldn't necessarily work as a major topic of discussion, and I don't think today's generation would understand/appreciate such a thing as much an older fan might if the creators did have a small focus on funeral rites.
However, since Sesshomaru didn't actually know where his father's tomb was when I revisited his debut episode, I decided to kind of delve into that. Even revisiting the scene when he sees his father's remains, that particular event didn't feel as emotional to me as it should have been. He was angrier at Inuyasha for bringing Naraku, who he felt was a lowlife, around his father, who was considered larger than life. But, I wondered if him hitting Inuyasha sort of reduced the actual impact of Sesshomaru having that moment of seeing his father's remains in person. I'm not sure if that was his first time seeing his father's remains or not at that point either because I was under the impression that he had when he entered the black pearl, but, from what I researched, the sources are inconsistent with that. Some say, it was Toga's grave; others say, it wasn't or that it was a different place. Regardless of that tidbit, that tells me that the rift that formed between father and son was deeper than let on. I think, personally, the funeral rite alone would have been a powerful, unexpected piece of writing for Sesshomaru's character if the creators really wanted to focus on Sesshomaru's life or adventures away from Inuyasha. Of course, no one wants to do that when it comes to sequels. They gotta go next gen versus really gripping solo adven. *mumbles nonsense* Anyways, I wanted to work with that a bit more, so I tried to think about how Sesshomaru would feel if he knew that someone performs funeral rites for fallen demon warriors and that it is as beautiful as it is honorable. Whether or not I've been true to his character in his response to the funeral rites is, of course, going to be up to the audience.
I thank you all for taking the time to read this fiction. You have no idea how proud I am to finally be able to flesh this story out. Although I'm excited to bring you all the action and mystery scenes because I just love writing those and it feeds into my love of kung fu and psych thriller movies, I'm equally as excited to give you the slice of life moments, flashbacks, and romantic scenes that I think Sesshomaru could have had if they gave him a fraction of a chance to be further developed. But, you know, next gen. Anyways, thank you so much once again and I'll see you next time! Ciao!