A/N: Ok then, I hope you all have enjoyed the story thus far. Please continue to review; it makes me feel good about my writing. As always I welcome criticism as long as it's constructive. I will see you all next week. Also I would like to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed this week even though I posted the next chapter the next day. I hope to see more reviews form you all in the coming weeks.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for the few characters that I have invented to make my story possible. If there are any questions about the story refer to the end of chapter 15 or leave a signed review and I will answer it.
Ch. 17 The Beginning
Lords Sesshomaru, Arisugawa, and Kazuki calmly walked up to the army of both youkai and humans continued to form in front of Sesshomaru's home, even though it was not his army. They stopped in the middle of the battlefield and waited for the offending armies' leader.
Kagome, along with her friends, watched from the hill at the back of the ranks. They had arrived maybe a half hour before and the lords ordered the forming of the ranks and the erection of the tents for them and for the wounded that would come.
The gates to the castle suddenly cleared and no soldiers came out anymore. Kagome began to wonder if only such a small army was left to defend the castle. But then three men began to move forward from the gates and towards the awaiting lord, one man was on horseback and the other two walking.
'That's Naraku. The other one must be the Southern Lord and… who is the last man?'
"Humph, stupid samurai believes he can win against a demon army. He and his men will die despite demons being on his side." Lady Miyuki said with a chuckle.
"So the other man is a samurai?" Kagome asked.
"Yes, he is a lord probably from the south or west depending if Lord Sesshomaru knows of him. " Miyuki answered.
Kagome looked back out to the battle field as the leaders came face to face. The man she assumed to be the Southern lord was quite thin and seemed very frail in comparison to the other lords. From her position she could tell he was wearing the same yellow and black as the soldiers behind him, he appeared to be as tall as Sesshomaru, and he had long dark green hair which was currently pulled back. She watched as the enemy leaders bowed and the lords bowed in return then it looked as if the one who was the Southern Lord began to speak.
~*~*~*~
"Sesshomaru, I'm so glad that you have seemed to survive." The southern lord greeted with a hiss.
"You will address him as lord Sesshomaru, Lord Yukio."Arisugawa quickly corrected.
"He has no lands, no castle, no one who serves him. He is no longer a lord." The samurai said from Lord Yukios' right responded with a laugh.
"So if the humans' in your land don't even have any respect for Youkai how can you expect to lead both west and South? We offer you the opportunity now to apologize for this offence and return Lord Sesshomaru's land. This will be your only chance Yukio." Kazuki explained.
Yukio turned to look at Sesshomaru, "And does Lord Sesshomaru agree with this offer?"
Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes, "I will kill you, whether it be now or later, but you will die at my hand."
"Well I guess it is better this way, since I never intended to give the Western lands back anyways." He then turned to leave but not before throwing one last comment over his shoulder, "It's too bad when we killed that little pet of yours you didn't hear her screams. you might have threatened me better then and not be as soft as she must have made you."
Sesshomaru's eyes went red as images of them killing Rin filled his vision, He then went for his sword but Lord Arisugawa and Kazuki grabbed him, "Not now."
Sesshomaru then snapped at the snake youkai's back, "This Sesshomaru does not threaten I promise that you will die at my hands and you will beg with mercy as I slowly kill you snake!"
~*~*~*~
Kagome could clearly tell from the looks of what was going on that they had not surrendered and that something had upset Sesshomaru as she watched the other lords restrain him from attack.
"Ah, so we will get to see some action! And for a moment it looked as if he was giving up." Miyuki said sounding triumphant.
Kumiko then reminded, "We are to attend the wounded though Lady Miyuki, especially you given your current condition."
Miyuki looked at Kumiko smiling, "I know that, but it doesn't mean we will not get any action. I wouldn't put it past that snake to attack from behind."
"But there is no other entrance or exit to the castle." Kagome said.
"There is one other but it would be a small passage for maybe a few people but I doubt they know of it and that Lord Sesshomaru would use it to attack."
"But they said there weren't any."
"There is always one for the Lord and his family to escape in the worst case scenario. But then he may have used it last time and they may know of it."
Kagome watched as the lords returned to their side of the battle field and started to direct the troops. She then looked to the other side and was surprised to see more than twice as many enemies as before now varying in color of uniform. She then looked to the sky to see the hordes of demons appearing in the sky.
'Please be safe Sesshomaru. Please don't let anything happen to yourself.' She thought as the soldiers on the other side increased in number.
*~*Few Hours later*~*
The battle was still under way at mid day and the wounded and dying continued to be brought in one after another. From their perspective it seemed like neither side was winning but Kagome couldn't help but worry.
She turned back to the demon in front of her. He was one of Koga's men, and he would squint in pain as Kagome pulled the quills out of his skin. He was attacked by a porcupine demon that had laced his quills with poison and in Kagome's opinion the wolf was lucky that he got to her in time to remove the poison from his system.
She pulled the last quill out and told him, "The poison was a paralytic so you won't be able to move around for some time but you should be fine now."
He grunted opening his eyes and looking up to her, "Thank you lady Kagome. You saved my life."
She smiled sadly wishing she could have saved more. Since she had started healing and bandaging wounded she had lost nearly ten different demons already but the others told her it would be worse if she wasn't there.
She then went to the next bed where another demon lay on his stomach with six arrows in his back. She warned him of the pain to come and began pulling the arrows out, once the last one was pulled she saw the amount of blood he was loosing and placed her hands on his back using her powers to heal his wounds. She felt the flow of energy go to her hands then into the demons body. When she lifted her hands she removed his haori and looked to see if she repaired everything.
"Good as new now. You will need to relax and eat something to help replace the blood you lost but your wounds are gone now."
The demon stood slowly surprised that his wounds were completely healed. He then looked at Kagome and bowed, "Thank you lady."
Kagome smiled a little happy that he appeared to be fine. She then turned to find that there were no more patients left that need attention. She moved to the door of the tent and was greeted by Kumiko with a bowl of rice for her.
"Here I brought you some food I can take over lady Kagome."
Kagome shook her head, "Where is Miyuki?"
"She went to sleep after she got ill. I feel sorry for her since she feels she is weak because she suddenly can't handle the sight of blood and all this."
Kagome shook her head, "I tried to explain to her that the baby probably has that effect on her now but you saw how defensive over that she got."
Kumiko nodded, "She believes that the baby should be as strong as her so it shouldn't have that effect."
Kagome rolled her eyes, "well it doesn't mean it's the baby that's weak it's her body reacting to the fact she is carrying a baby that's weak."
Kumiko's brow scrunched up, "I'm confused."
But before Kagome could continue another group of soldiers came into the tent with more wounded.
Kagome put down the bowl and went over to the one that looked the worse.
"He was stabbed by several tentacles."One soldier explained.
"He has lost a lot of blood."Kagome said placing her hands on the parts of the demons chest that didn't have wholes through them.
"We tried to get here as soon as possible." The other said.
She then began to gether her miko energies and sent it into his body. She could feel his body mending itself but she couldn't replace the lost blood. Kagome then pulled her hands off and checked his pulse. Nothing.
'Now I've lost another one.' Kagome thought as she then motioned for the soldiers' to take the body out.
Kagome then looked at the other demon that had come. Kumiko was bandaging up his leg.
"What happened?" Kagome asked scrutinizing the soldier's wounds.
"One of those samurai tried to cut my leg off but he only managed to slice it real nice so I couldn't keep my weight on it. She said you could fix it but I want the battle scar."
Kagome looked at Kumiko who shrugged.
"Ok. How are things going out there?"Kagome inquired since he was one of the first wounded who didn't seem too bad off.
"Well we're going to win this but I can't tell how long it will take. We may be here for a while."
"have you fought in a battle like this?"
"Ha! A battle? No this is a war, and yes I have." The soldier answered.
"Are you allies with the east or north?"
"I came from the north but I was one of Lord Sesshomaru's soldiers before the southern lord took the castle."
"Really? So are there others here who also serve Lord Sesshomaru still?"
"We make up a good portion of the army. Most of us had no choice but to surrender at first or give in when the sneak attack came. But as soon as we heard rumor of Lord Kazuki forming a army to reclaimed the West we left to join him."
Kagome smiled, "I am happy to hear that there are those who are still loyal to him."
"What about you, miko. Whose ally are you, where did you come from?"
"I am currently in the service of our Lord Sesshomaru." Kagome answered.
The soldier nodded, "It is good that you are here, especially with your powers."
"Thank you. I wish I could help more."
~*~*~*~
Sesshomaru was surrounded. Then yet again that was the plan as he made his acid whip and swirled it around himself killing the demon filth that thought to attack him.
He killed one after another and sometimes a few at a time but despite that he couldn't find the snake, Yukio.
He was going to kill him. He would capture the traitor and kill him with his bare hands. Then he would revive the bastard and slowly allow his poison to kill him as he cut off his limbs.
His lips pulled up in a slight smile as he imagined it and cut down the weak human that came charging at him.
'Filth.'
That was the word he thought of when he saw these humans. He then thought of Kagome and felt the purple scarf ha had taken from her still tucked under his armor.
'She is different though, as was Rin. They do not belong among or compare to this trash. No, they are better.'
He then sliced turned quickly beheading the demon that meant to sneak up on him. He then looked towards the back field where the tent was.
'She is fine there.' He told himself even though he didn't believe it.
No matter what Sesshomaru tried to tell himself he was still faced with the one fact and that was that he cared deeply for the miko who was such an asset to this reclamation of his lands. He had grown fond of her and he didn't know how, but at the same time he wouldn't allow for her to be his weakness. He wouldn't put her in a position where his enemies would try to kill her to get to him, like they had done to Rin. He would let her go if only physically as he thought of the scarf that he carried to have some part of her with him now.
He made another acid whip and spun killing those behind him, "I am Lord Sesshomaru and I will not be attacked so easily by you weaker beings."
~*~*~*~
A/N: God damn writers block! So I wrote yesterday's chapter in like 30 minutes. Then I posted it and took a lunch break. Then I came back, found a review. Read it. Smiled and told my boy friend. Then I tried to write this chapter. Let me remind you that was at like 3pm Friday. Now I'm posting this late, after trying to figure out how to begin the battle, what the Southern Lords name was supposed to be, and how to put some good action into it. I know I failed at the last one but hey I can try. So there it is chapter. I am sorry that the writing gods decided to put a mental blockade on my imagination and creative thoughts. Please review though. Even if it's one word it's appreciated. And thank you to those who did review, again it mean a lot to me. See you all next week. I WILL post on Friday, hopefully late afternoon early evening.