Chained: In More Ways Than One
Looked Like Mud
Sesshoumaru decided the best place to start looking for the Miko would be the village of Edo. Where his brother was sealed to a tree for 50 years, which the shard hunters had made their home base.
He would hopefully run into them on the way or they had recently been to the village and he could follow the scent trail left behind and track them. Hopefully the former. He decided that running was his best mode of transportation so that he wouldn't miss any scents.
He hadn't been traveling long in the direction of Edo when he picked up the stench of blood and of his half brother. His very strong stench. 'Seriously, does he even bath or does he just naturally smell bad?'
From what his senses were telling him they were in the middle of a battle. He knew the Miko being with his brother was a safe bet. From what he had seen of her relationship with his brother; she followed him around like a love sick puppy.
Sesshoumaru turned and started to run in the southern direction from where he was. When he reached the edges of his half brothers senses; he slowed down and suppressed his yokai so he would not be detected. He snuck up to the battle until it was within all his senses. He hid behind a bush.
The battle had just ended as his brother killed the last ogre. The shard hunters weir regrouping. He wondered why the Miko hadn't shown up yet when he over heard the conversation being held. Imagine his surprise.
"Where's Kagome?" Asked the demon slayer. The others finally noticing the problem of their missing companion. The fox kit climbed up onto the monks shoulder.
"Hey Inuyasha, didn't you tell Kagome to run during the battle? What was that all about?" All the groups attention then became focused on the hanyou.
"O yah! Almost forgot about that. An ogre almost stepped on her and she became frozen like a statue."
"What happened after you told her to run?" asked the monk.
"I don't know I lost track of her when an ogre attacked me from behind. She can't have gotten too far." The hanyou didn't sound worried.
"Awe Inuyasha. Weren't there ten ogres?" piped up the kit in a nervous voice.
"Yeh, why?" The group looked at the kit confused.
"Because there are only nine bodies."
"Awe shit!" Now he sounded worried. "How does she always manage to get herself into these situations. Are the jewel shards like a magnet for trouble?"
As Sesshoumaru watched the group disperse and split up to search for the missing Miko; he realized this was his chance. All he had to do was find the Miko before his brother and companions did. With his superior senses that shouldn't be to hard.
He didn't know how they could've missed it but after using only his sense of sight he was able to spot the entrance the ogre had made into the forest while following after the Miko. And it only took him a second.
He made his way through the edge of the woods towards the trail of broken trees left behind so as not to be spotted. Really, this was just too easy he thought. He didn't even need his senses to find the Miko.
Sesshoumaru had been following the trail of broken trees for a while now with no signs of the Miko. He was now in the middle of the woods, which were so thick and deep it was nearly a forest.
From the looks of it she had been captured and carried off quit a distance. And he was sure he was right. It didn't look good for the Miko either. 'Why is it when he is assigned to capture the Miko, she gets captured by another just before he could reach her, and probably got herself killed just for good measure? Was it just his luck or what?'
If he didn't find a sign of her soon he would claim he tried but was unable to reach her before her demise and that it wasn't his fault so the council should help him anyways.
'Wow, that even sounded stupid and juvenile in my own mind.' thought Sesshoumaru.
And he was just about to do it too when he caught a faint scent of the Miko just ahead. He sped up to reach her before she was eaten or something of the likes. He noticed the path of trees were coming to an end. When he walked past the end he noticed he also passed the scent. He circled the tree.
He knew the Miko hadn't escaped the ogre because her scent hadn't veered off the path but had just disappeared.
Sesshoumaru's senses where telling him it was coming from this tree but he didn't see it. Then he suddenly had the urge to look up. He stopped and succumbed to his urge to only see part of the Miko's indecent green skirt hanging off a branch near the top. Meaning if she was still alive, the Miko was running around even more indecent than usual.
'Now how did that get there?'
Sesshoumaru took a step to catch a closer look to only step on something that made a loud *snapping* noise. He stepped back to look at the culprit for giving away his position but it was just a broken stick. When he heard the sound of someone trying not to cry.
"Who's there?" he asked. In reply a clod of mud was thrown out from under a tree not to far away. That actually hit him in the side of the face. Then it started too flow down the collar of his hoiri and under his clothing. He was seriously annoyed. Sesshoumaru absolutely hated being dirty.
'Whoever threw that is going to die.' He determinedly moves toward the direction the mud clod was thrown from.
"Don't come any closer!" shouted a feminine voice. This time another glod of mud was thrown but he managed to sense and duck it so it hit a tree behind him instead.
"Go away!" said a raw and gulping voice, as if it had just been crying.
He turned the corner to spot the Miko he had been sent to retrieve. Readying another clod to be thrown at his person. Still and gawkin surprise at the sight of him.
Sesshoumaru observed the Miko's disheveled state annoyingly.
'No wonder I couldn't sense her presence with his nose. She's covered head to toe in what looks like mud but smelt like ogre.'
Yah, the Miko had been covered in the ashes of the purified demon. And she was just as disgusted with it as much as Sesshoumaru.
But after she was dropped back into the trees she manages to hurt her leg hitting a tree branch on the way down. She would have gone to wash it off. If she could move! And it had rained since then; turning the ashes, into muck.
If she hadn't been in a state of shock. She would have had the sense to be embarrassed at the fact that Inuyasha's really good looking older half brother Sesshoumaru had found her covered in what looked like mud but was really wet purified demon. And she would have had the sense to fear for her life after realizing that she had been throwing what looked like mud but was really wet purified demon at said demon. And had hit him too. But she was in a state of shock. How was she supposed to know it was him?
Then Sesshoumaru started to move towards her. Snapping Kagome out of her brain dead state. 'What's he doing here, and whys he glaring at my right hand?'. Kagome looked at her hand and realized she was still holding a clod of dirt. She quickly dropped it realizing threatening Sesshoumaru with a clod of dirt would only make him angrier than he usually was normally.
*eep*
Realizing he was still coming towards her. Kagome attempted to gather another clod from her person when he passed right by her. She went from shocked to confused. *Wah* 'Is he leaving'.
Kagome attempted to turn around and see what Sesshoumaru was doing behind her, when a shock of pain shot up her leg. She grabbed her left foot in pain. Causing her to drop the clod.
So concentrated on it that she almost forgot about the daiyokia behind her. Until she heard the soft *tingle* of a chain being unwound. If she didn't think her ankle was broken she would've run.
A hand suddenly came into her vision with demon markings and claws which then grasped her left wrist. Kagome could only gawk as a thin chain magically tied its self around her wrist.
"What… do you think you are doing?" Kagome freaked after coming out of her magically induced trance. Trying to remove the immovable chain.
"Taking you with me. I made an oath." responded Sesshoumaru.
"Oath, what oath did you make?" Her tone going from scared to suspiciously annoyed.
"I have been assigned by the Demon Council to retrieve you from my brothers company and return you back to headquarters." Sesshoumaru said it like he was bored.
"You expect me to just go along with this?"
"…" Sesshoumaru gave no response but just narrowed his eyes at her.
"I'll assist you at nothing, and do whatever in my power to frustrate your plans.!" Kagome stated.
"Get up" The Miko just narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms at him.
"I think my legs broken." Sesshoumaru actually wanted to sigh, which was a big show of emotion for him.
Sesshoumaru walked over to a tree and snapped a small branch off. Using his clays to carve a crutch for the Miko to put her weight on.
Sesshoumaru handed Kagome the crutch. Who attempted to get up by putting her weight on the crutch only to have it slip in the mud causing her crashing back down.
"I think I'm going to need a little help."
He was loathed to touch a human but it seemed like his only choice. If Jaken was here he would've gotten him to help the clumsy Miko. Sesshoumaru reached down to help her up. His hand tingled, not unpleasantly, where his skin touched hers.
Kagome leaned on him for a second for support, but then remembering who he was, quickly pushed herself off of him like he had the plague, leaned on her crutch and slowly, very slowly; limped away.