"Jaken, we're leaving," Sesshomaru ordered, turning to walk out of the bath house.
He absolutely refused to be under the same roof as his rival. To hell with that! Sleeping outside, on a boat, in the middle of the sea, or wherever was going to be the better alternative than this for tonight. His list of misfortunes had grown two lines too long for his tastes.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Ohta said, snatching Sesshomaru's sleeve and forcing him to pivot straight back around to face her. Make that three lines too long... Ohta grabbed some towels from the shelves and forced the western lord to take them before saying, "You're having a bath and that's final."
"But we're not - "
"I SAID FINAL!" Ohta shouted, startling and interrupting Jaken. She puffed her cheeks and nodded with firmness in her decision. "Doc's done in the steam room anyway. You're not sharing the space."
"Why're they here anywa - ? Did you bring business here with you?" Meioshi questioned, exchanging a pointed finger at Ohta then Sesshomaru.
"You know I don't do that," Ohta answered with a cat-like grin and lowered voice. She then pointed at the doctor's bandages and asked, "Are you ashamed?"
Meioshi smiled gently, pupils dilating simultaneously with the stretch of her rosy lips, and said with a remorseful tone, "No. I just put medicine on it. It hurts a little still. Huh?"
Ohta nuzzled into the doctor's bosom, sighed quietly, and embraced her softly. Meioshi looked down at the little one and returned the supportive comfort. It wasn't until Ohta spoke up and asked, "Will it be soon?"
Meioshi's gentle expression changed into something that actually surprised Sesshomaru. His eyes widened slightly at the darkened smolder emitting from the doctor's hazel depths. Her pupils shrunk and a fiery determination replaced the gentleness she had before. She replied just as quietly, "Yes."
Silently, Sesshomaru and Jaken just watched the two holding each other until a clamoring of footsteps arose. Three little children ran in the bath house with smiles on their faces and laughter bubbling up from their chests. They called out Ohta's name and tackled her to the ground to embrace or place kisses on her cheeks. Ohta returned the sweet gestures with a happy smile of her own and placed kisses on each of the three youngsters. Meioshi giggled before shaking her head at the bundle of kids linking together and retrieving a medium-sized bucket. Sesshomaru watched her fill it up with a large blue bottle, four smaller jars and four brushes of varying colors, two brown pumice stones, and a large rose bottle. The doctor then walked over to the towel shelves and retrieved more towels before placing them in a basket. As the children were describing the events of their day to Ohta, Sesshomaru stopped watching Meioshi for a moment and turned his attention to the children. One, in particular, was a half-demon from the smell of her. The boy and second girl seemed to be humans. Sesshomaru, however, noticed something of interest about Ohta. Actually, it was something slipping off of her. She was wearing a wig.
"Big brother, you forgot to take off your hair," one of the girls said, tugging on the item.
"Oh!" Ohta said, yanking off the wig and shaking a full head of wavy hair. He then said with a deeper voice, "Whoo! I was in such a hurry to get home to you three that I forgot to leave it at the okiya. Thank you, Juba."
"EH!?" Jaken shouted, pointing a finger at Ohta. Sesshomaru's eyes only widened at the reveal. The beautiful girl he thought he protected was really a young boy this whole time? What on Earth? The imp continued to shout, "You're a boy?"
"Hm?" Ohta questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course, he is!" Juba replied, smiling brightly. "He just wears the wig because some cus'omers like that. Big brother's really good at being a girl, though, because he's still so cute."
"B-b-b-bu-but you - ! I mean we - ! How did - ?" Jaken stuttered, shocked from the transformation he just witnessed from something as simple as a wig.
"Oh! Mama Mei-Mei?" the other girl called, hopping over to Meioshi on one foot before hugging her leg.
Meioshi chuckled at the little one, lifted her leg with little effort with the child still on her, and replied, "Yes, my Chiura. Whatcha got?"
Chiura, the little half-demon girl, released Meioshi's leg and said with the innocence rivaling her fully human companion, Juba, "The stew's burning."
The doctor sucked in a rapid breath, eyes wide with dread, and performed an acrobatic kick that sent Chiura into the air. Meioshi caught her in her arms, placed the child down, and ran out of the bath house with her arms flailing and towel forgotten. Sesshomaru only heard the swishing of grass and a few cuss words coming from the woman.
"Is the mister bathing with us, big brother?" the little boy asked, hugging Ohta's neck from behind.
"Yes, he is, Kijiro," Ohta answered, smiling.
"No, we're not," Sesshomaru corrected, moving to place the towels back.
"I said yes, he is," Ohta said with a challenging tone in his voice and a smirk on his lips. Sesshomaru turned his head very slightly to the boy but continued to put the towels back on the shelves. When he proceeded to make his way to the door, Ohta narrowed his eyes and said, "Chiura, grapple bear attack!"
Within a second, the little half-demon girl clung onto Sesshomaru's leg the way she did Meioshi's. The problem was Sesshomaru didn't want to catapult the kid into oblivion, and he was too shocked that the little girl was so fast at grabbing onto him. When he looked down at the little one, she merely looked up at him with a sweet smile and those big, glittering, fuchsia eyes.
The western lord growled at her before asking, "What are you doing?"
"Juba, misty lock!" Ohta ordered, plucking a gold bead towards the door. It rattled on the wood floors for the little girl to chase with her arms out and a laugh escaping her. Suddenly, her hands were glowing blue and covered in fog. She slammed her hands on the door and formed a barrier on the door. When Jaken reached out to touch the door, he was blasted with a sonic bullet of cold mist and thrown to the ground. Juba joined Chiura in hugging Sesshomaru's opposite leg. Fully displeased with the girls holding his legs hostage, his brow twitched before Ohta let out the final order, "Kijiro, nippy gnat spell!"
"Okay!" the boy cheered, spinning around and giggling until he started getting close to Sesshomaru. The western lord took a simple step back, contemplating the doctor's reaction time if he sent the kid flying into the air at the speed of a shooting star with a basic kick, but realized that Chiura's weight was getting heavy on his ankle. Juba was no different. In a burst of speed, the boy zipped to Moko Moko and clung to it like the girls were holding his legs. Kijiro then said, "I got him, big brother!"
"Now, then," Ohta said with a toothier smirk and crossing his ankles seductively, "I suggest you pick up those towels and come with us. Otherwise, you'll have three grapple bears with you all night long."
"I'll take my chances," Sesshomaru ground out, going to open the door.
He noticed that Ohta wasn't stopping him, and the children weren't letting go. Meioshi hadn't left her stew to retrieve the little monsters yet either. Something wasn't right. Silently and experimentally, Sesshomaru walked into the open field with the kids still clinging to him and leapt into the air to take flight. Elated, the kids blushed and cooed out an "Uwoah" as they soared in the sky above the field of flowers. Growling that the kids weren't afraid of heights, he tried flying at a faster pace, but the little ones were only more excited. Sensing Ohta walking out of the bath house with Jaken behind the teen, Sesshomaru decided to try to make the boy plead for his mercy by taking Juba and tossing her in the air to scare him. Only she wasn't afraid of being dropped and for good reason. She was sucked back to her position on his leg in mid-flight like he just fluffed his pants out for them to return in place! That disturbed the western lord. He tried to peel Chiura off his other leg and tossed her out, but she just shot straight back to his leg. Finally, he took his Moko Moko and whipped Kijiro above him only for the boy to spin around and stick right back onto his fur attachment.
Enraged, Sesshomaru shot back to Ohta at frightening speed and stomped towards him after landing. The kids were enjoying themselves regardless and only made the western lord's brow twitch. He stood over Ohta like a dark tower and hissed, "Get these leeches off me."
Ohta didn't say a word more to Sesshomaru. Instead, he walked into the bath house, retrieved the towels he gave to Sesshomaru, and said with a bright smile, "This way then, my lord!"
"No," Sesshomaru growled, narrowing his eyes at the teen.
"Then, my little ones stay on you," Ohta said with a devious smirk.
"You're amazing, mister swordsman!" Kijiro cheered, fisting his little hands and pressing them against his chest.
Sesshomaru inhaled deeply before letting out a frustrated sigh. He refused to admit that the bath house was pleasant in its design. There was a small garden inside of it with hanging planters forming chandeliers of creeping vines. Stones were architecturally placed to form a tiered blending of garden and bathing room. Ohta was scrubbing his skin with the pumice stone while monitoring the girls chasing each other in their water game on the split side of the room. The teen's beauty was something to behold. Sesshomaru took notice to an imperfection on the boy's body, however. It was a brown scar along the shoulder. Kijiro tilted his head cutely, looking over to Ohta and spotting what the lord was eyeing, and walking to a particular stone to scratch at it.
"Should we leave after the bath, my lord?" Jaken asked, leaning over to Sesshomaru and whispering behind his webbed hand.
"You do and I'll use another attack formation," Ohta threatened, narrowing his eyes at Sesshomaru and Jaken. He smirked evilly before rubbing something sweet-smelling onto his skin. When he heard a large splash and light scream, he placed the jar down quickly and called out, "Juba, no climbing on those rocks! You'll hurt yourself!"
"Sorry, big brother," Juba said, pouting. Chiura slammed her hands on the water, waiting for Juba to rejoin the game.
"Do you want one, mister swordsman?" Kijiro piped up, holding up a sharp stone. Sesshomaru only turned to look at the little boy while Ohta went to the other side to take care of something with the girls. Kijiro then rubbed the back of his head of dark brown hair and said, "You were looking at big brother's scar. Did you want one?"
"No," Sesshomaru said, taking away the stone from the boy. He was quiet for a minute before he asked, "Is it the same as the doctor's scar?"
Kijiro nodded and said, "It comes from my favorite story about them. It sounds sad at first, but it has a nice ending."
"Huh? What story?" Jaken asked.
"Seven years ago, Mama Mei-Mei was traveling to a village far, far away. It was her first trip as a doctor. She had a wagon full of medicine and food on her journey. One day, she found some injured men on the side of the road. While she was nursing them, a pretty girl was running away from the Evil Danna and Crooket Mistress. She took care of her and hid her away in the wagon. Mama Mei-Mei was mad that the pretty girl was being beaten, even though she worked really hard, so she went up to the Crooket Mistress and tried to buy her freedom, but the Crooket Mistress wouldn't let her have the pretty girl because the Evil Danna put too high of a price on her. Mama Mei-Mei didn't give up, though. She took care of the girl and tried to earn money in different ways to convince the Crooket Mistress to let her have the pretty girl. Time went by. The pretty girl got sick. Big brother was sold to work for the Evil Danna, but the pretty girl took big brother and hid him away in Mama Mei-Mei's wagon. A big fight happened! Mama Mei-Mei lost but the Evil Danna was so moved by Mama Mei-Mei's strength of will that she gave her a chance to buy the pretty girl and big brother's freedom. She could have them both if the okiya village earned more money than the richest person the Evil Danna knew. Mama Mei-Mei agreed and rebuilt the entire village with the money she earned doing different things. The pretty girl got even sicker. Mama Mei-Mei tried to heal her, but the pretty girl didn't want to be healed. She died. Because she died, her price was added to big brother's and he had to take her place. Super-duper angry, Mama Mei-Mei fought even harder to keep big brother away from the Crooket Mistress and the Evil Danna, but a samurai beat big brother and Mama Mei-Mei had to say sorry for causing trouble. Big brother was extra mad at the samurai and tried to fight back, but he lost and was whipped. That's where his scar came from. Mama Mei-Mei blocked the rest of the whipping to protect big brother, but he agreed to take the pretty girl's place to save Mama Mei-Mei from death. Ashamed, Mama Mei-Mei took a knife and carved out 'fail no more' on her chest in honor of the pretty girl. The pretty girl is the only person Mama Mei-Mei never burned because of her guilt for not setting her free, but she vowed to one day give the pretty girl true peace and to set big brother free. So, she fights to keep everyone safe because she loves us just like she loved them."
Sesshomaru and Jaken were quiet at the little boy's retelling of Ohta and Meioshi's story. Neither one knew that Meioshi was leaning on the wall, listening to Kijiro paraphrasing Ohta's version of the tale. The doctor smirked at the little boy, impressed by Kijiro's memory, and then left the group to continue bathing. She walked to the main house to retrieve the extra bedding for Sesshomaru and Jaken's guest room in complete silence.