Blood of a Demon

Chapter Three

Kagome awoke and looked around the room, it took her quite a while to remember exactly where she was. She yawned and slipped out of the bed, just as she did servents rushed in through the door and proceeded to wash and dress her in similar attire to what the Lord Sesshoumaru wore. She raised a brow and figured that it was probably for her training.

It wasn't long before another servent hurried through the door and set a tray of food on the table and just as quick she hurried back out. For the second time that morning Kagome raised her brow and walked over to the tray to examine it's contents. It looked delicious, she sat down at the little table and started to eat. She didn't get to enjoy her food for very long before the door flew open and in waltzed Sesshoumaru with the same cold expression he usually wore.

"If you are done, wench, I will take you to the training arena and then leave the instructions with the youkai who is teaching you." He said in a voice that seemed to flow like silk.

Kagome's face turned red with anger, how dare he just come right in without so much as a knock! She stood and faced him, her eyes staring into his. They stood there for what seemed like an eternity before he turned on his heel and headed back out the door. With a sigh Kagome figured she was meant to follow him. She wasn't too happy with the way he had treated her or the way he had talked to her but she really wasn't in the mood to argue this morning.

She followed him across the yard, not really sure why she was following him in the first place after the way he had treated her. It wasn't really how she reacted when InuYasha disrespected her, so why didn't she even put up a fight with Sesshoumaru? It didn't take long for them to reach the building and standing there waiting for them was the bear youkai. He had been one of the demons in the arena the other day.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, Lady Kagome." He bowed to them both before turning and walking into the building before them.

Kagome raised her brow, something that seemed to be happening more often than not in the last couple hours. He had just addressed her as "Lady Kagome" and the Demon Lord had not corrected him at all. It seemed that he knew her name, could Sesshoumaru have told him? She stared at his back as she followed him into the training arena. Wait! If it indeed had been Sesshoumaru who told the youkai her name, then he did know how to say it! She mentally slapped herself, of course he would know her name!

"Follow me Lady Kagome." The youkai said as he made his way across the training area.

"You may call me Kagome." She said as they made their way over to the same wall of swords she had seen the day before.

"Oh no, I wouldn't dare! What would Lord Sesshoumaru think if I called his mate by just her name?!" The youkai said as he walked along the wall, taking down swords and testing them before putting them back up and going on to looking for another one.

"Me? His mate?!" She laughed as she looked on at him.

He turned and looked at her, studying the look on her face. Seeing if she really meant it, which it seemed she did.

"You mean you are not Lord Sesshoumaru's future mate?"

"No! I am merely here because I ran into the lord while I was passing through his lands." She answered as she looked into the youkai's green eyes.

"Then, there you have it. He must have seen you as a worthy mate if he spared you and brought you into his home." The youkai said as he handed her a sword. Oddly it was the one Sesshoumaru had chosen the day before.

She took the sword and looked on at the youkai. She decided not to argue with this youkai, clearly it would prove no good if he already believed his own story... or was it already all over the castle?

"Okay, Lady Kagome. I have been told you were only taught the proper stances yesterday, am I correct?" She nodded and he continued. "Well, I will continue on with teaching you how to use those stances and the proper movement today. Shall we start?"

"Before we do, may I ask you your name?" Kagome asked as she flashed him her charming smile.

"I am Ankoku." He answered, "now, may we start, Lady Kagome?"

She sighed as he called her Lady Kagome yet again, but nodded her response.

"Good, now when I say left bring your sword to your right, and when I say right bring your sword to your left. Each will block my attack. When I say front, pull your sword in front of you and push forward, it will push my sword towards me. Do you understand?"

She nodded and got into a stance. He stepped up to her and took her leg and put it into place, then adjusted the way she held her sword before he took his own.

"Right!" He yelled and she brought her sword to her left side, blocking his swing. He gave her no time to recover as he called out his attacks.

"Left! Right! Front! Right! Right!" He hacked twice at her left and the clang of metal on metal was heard as they continued their practice.

It was hours later and they still continued, she knew a lot more and was slowly getting better. Although she was still clumsy, but Ankoku was a patient youkai as it seemed and helped her through it all.

"It seems you are doing a good job." They both stopped and turned to face the taiyoukai, Ankoku bowed. Kagome just stared at him, hot and sweating from the training she had just finished.

"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru, Lady Kagome is doing quite well. She will be skilled with a sword soon." The youkai said as he bowed once more.

"That will be all, you may leave. She will be here at the same time tomorrow morning."

She watched as the youkai bowed and walked away from them and out of the building. She then looked to Sesshoumaru and glared.

"That's hard! I can't keep up like this for hours a day!" She yelled up at him.

"You will get used to it, or it will kill you. It is up to you to choose what it will do to you, wench." He answered as he turned and exited the building as well.

She sighed and turned to the wall of swords and looked for the spot in which the one in her hand belonged to. She spotted the empty place and walked over to it and hung the sword back in it's place. She rubbed her sore arms and then slowly headed out to the building as well.

As she walked passed the gardens a young girl came flying at her and latched herself onto her. Kagome winced as her body seemed to suddenly be aware it was sore. But she wrapped her arms around the small girl nonetheless.

"Hey there Rin-chan. How was your morning?" Kagome smiled down at the little girl.

"It was boring without Kagome-chan! But now you're here and we can play!" The girl squealed and took a hold of Kagome's hand and lead her off into the gardens.

Kagome sighed and followed the girl, it seemed her bath would have to wait. The little girl was so cute, that she couldn't just say no to her and leave. But as they were heading off further into a garden, a female youkai approached them and took a hold of the small girl's hand gently.

She then looked to Kagome, "lunch will soon be ready. You are to bathe and then dress, someone will be to your room to help you."

Kagome gave a sigh of relief and followed the woman and little girl back into the castle. When she got into her own room, there were two women already waiting for her. It didn't take long for them to strip her and get her into a tub of hot water and wash her down, then dry her and dress her in a dark green kimono.

It wasn't too long before Jaken walked in and demanded that she follow him to the dining room. She followed him grateful for what would be at the end of the trip. The long day of training had really made her quite hungry.

Jaken opened the door and let her walk through. She looked on at the small girl and taiyoukai already sitting at the table waiting for her. She smiled at the girl and didn't bother to look at Sesshoumaru as she sat down. Soon the food was set before her and all three ate in silence, which was odd, since the girl was usually pretty chatty.

As soon as they were done eating Sesshoumaru stood and looked over at Kagome, "you will be going back to training now."

Kagome's eyes widened and she stood and began to yell at him in a protest. He shot her a cold glare which meant no arguing and she shut up and nodded. She mentally slapped herself as she followed him out of the room and back to the training building.

She looked up as they entered and saw no one in there, she looked at him confused.

"I will be the one to test you after every training session. But first you will just browse the walls and pick your sword, take your time wench. We just finished eating and you don't want too heavy of a sword or too weak of one either."

She glared at him but nodded and began to walk along the walls of swords. She looked at a beautifully designed sword and smiled. But as she took it off the wall it fell to the ground with a thud and she could hardly pick it up. She blushed as she dropped it and couldn't pick it back up.

"What a pathetic excuse for a youkai." Sesshoumaru said coldly as he bent to pick up the sword and hang it back onto the wall.

She didn't say anything to him, only looked at the wall of swords. It was around twenty minutes and the dropping of many heavy swords later, that she found a light sword and turned to Sesshoumaru.

"Now, I will see what you have learned." He said as he withdrew Toukijin and slashed at her. She pulled her sword in front of her stopping his attack just in time.

He slashed at her side and she stopped his attack once again. This continued for less than five minutes, and then he had his sword at her neck. The razor sharp edge cut it a bit and blood trickled down her neck. He pulled his sword from her neck and then turned without a word and walked out.

She gave a sigh of relief and brought her hand up to her neck. She would have done better if she were in the clothes she had been in that morning. But he hadn't allowed her time to change, simply brought her out and told her to choose a sword.

She hung the sword and once again made her way to the castle. She entered and looked around, it seemed bare and quiet, but that was ended as a giggle was heard and the small girl came running down the hall.

"Look Kagome-chan!" The girl squealed as she thrusted what seemed to be a wolf pup into her arms. "It's a wolf pup! Some soldier found them and brought them back, there were two of them. A black one and a white one! I wanted the white one! But I wanted you to have one too so I decided to give you this one!"

Kagome smiled down at the wolf pup in her arms. It was tiny, it couldn't have been more than four weeks old. She smiled at the girl and cradled the pup in her arms.

"Did you name it?" She asked as she smiled down at the girl.

"No, I called mine Mikari! Yours is a boy, that's what Sesshoumaru-sama said!" Rin said as she smiled at Kagome.

"Hm.. Let's call him..."

"Dark Death!" Rin yelled out.

Kagome looked at the girl and raised a delicate brow in wonderment at how the girl would come up with that. She then smiled and eventually nodded at the small girl.

"Okay, Dark Death it is." Kagome said with a laugh. "But, I have to change, I'll be out to play in about twenty minutes okay?"

"Okay, I'll go get Mikari!" Rin said with joy as she skipped off down the hall towards her own room.

Upon entering her room she walked over to the bed and set the pup down onto the bed. She smiled at the bundle of fluff wondering how it could ever live up to a name such as Dark Death but shrugged it off as she slipped out of her kimono and into another one.

She smiled at the pup as it watched her and stepped up to it and took it into her arms and walked out of her room and to the gardens, where Rin was already running around and playing with the little white wolf pup.

Walking up to the little girl, she flashed a smile as she set the other pup down, it ran over to the white one and the two started to play fight.

As the pups played, Rin and Kagome went about picking flowers and making wreaths with them. It was a wonderful afternoon, the day seemed to fly by and soon supper rolled around and that passed as well.

Evening went by quite fast and Kagome soon found herself slipping into her silk kimono and into bed with the black pup. She gave a sigh and closed her eyes, feeling the pup cuddle up to her she soon fell asleep.

Okay, so I finally revised Chapter Three! I know it's been quite a while but I just wasn't really into writing too much. But... OMG! InuYasha is on Netflix and it has renewed my interest in all of this! I am falling back in love with it all! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this revision. I didn't really change much in this chapter. There really wasn't much to change, either way I hope you like it.