Chained In More Ways Than One
Trepidation
Kagome followed Sesshoumaru who seemed to know the way to Totosai's dwelling very well in her opinion. She wondered how many times before the demon lord had gone and demanded another sword to be made by the old smith.
What she couldn't understand was why Sesshoumaru was walking so slow. Which was really weird for him because he seemed to like to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. She was having trouble staying behind him and kept walking into the lead by accident which wouldn't be a problem if she knew how to get to where they were going.
"Sesshoumaru why are we walking?" Kagome asked and only received a raised eyebrow from the demon lord for her question. "You know instead of flying on your cloud or using your flying bubble, because then we could be there within the hour." She tried to make her point by acting out the actions by using her arms.
Sesshoumaru developed an annoyed look on his face. "It isn't a flying bubble."
'That's the only part that he caught out of my tirade.' Kagome thought to herself with a huff. "Looks like a bubble to me." She responded just to annoy him.
"We can't fly using my cloud because it is too easy to be spotted and I'm sure that Shizaru already has search parties out looking for us so we would only be able to use my 'flying bubble ' as you like to call it, which you didn't seem to like very much the last time."
Kagome thought Sesshoumaru had good reasons for not flying now but just had to send him a look just screaming 'What about the speed.'
"And the reason we are walking so slow is because I'm trying to put off the inventible failure of the purpose of this journey." Sesshoumaru sighed.
"You mean your stalling by walking so slow." Kagome said in surprise. " No matter how slow you walk it still isn't going to change Totosai's answer to our problem."
"Wow, you're acting like a human." Kagome tacked on the end in a mumble of contemplation on the emotion the demon lord was giving off.
Sesshoumaru froze on the spot, tensed, turned on his heel and gave the miko the worst glare he could manage.
"Ok! Ok! You aren't anything like us weak humans. You are a big and scary man eating demon. Happy!" Kagome placated and rolled her eyes. "Gods, don't have a cow over it!"
"Actually a cow sounds good right about now." Sesshoumaru responded snapping back to his normal regal relaxed poster at that comment.
"What." Kagome said in confusion.
" I haven't eaten since the camp fire two days ago." Sesshoumaru answered.
"You're hungry?" Kagome finally came to the right conclusion as she watched the demon lord look both ways like a cow would magically appear at his command. She had a feeling that she should be remembering something important but couldn't put her finger on it and just put it away in the back of her mind to ponder later.
"I don't think there are any cows in this area and we don't have time to waist to go on a separate mission to go look for one. How about we get you a cow after we talk to Totosai?" Kagome really didn't want to watch the demon devourer a poor defenseless animal but she didn't think there were any around, right. Hopefully they never came across one.
"Fine then. Come here so that we can get there as fast a possible." Sesshoumaru commanded as he started to gather his yokai.
"What like fly in the bubble again. No way." Kagome refused. "Just start walking faster and lead the way." She signaled with her hand for him to get moving.
Sesshoumaru powered down and made a face to Kagome resembled a pout before walking in the apparent direction of Totosai's cave at his normal fast pace that she could never keep up with… and she was so glade.
Kagome would never tell him to slow down again.
They were at the half way point to Totosai's according to Sesshoumaru when Kagome asked about ten minutes ago when she felt two jewel shards coming towards then fast. Like unbelievably fast.
'Oh no. Koga.' Kagome didn't think she could handle the wolf demon right now so she thought of an escape plane. Sesshoumaru was surprised when all a sudden he had the miko glued to his left side. He stopped moving.
"What do you think you are doing? Sesshoumaru questioned.
"I'm tired of walking. Go ahead and use your giant bubble. I'm ready." Kagome made a meager excuse and closed her eyes tight to prepare herself for the uncomfortable feeling of having too much pressure pressed down on her.
"Awe, you changed your mind." Sesshoumaru said in understanding before he quickly shot off to travel the rest of the distance to Totosai's.
Just before Koga slid into the area of their previous location.
Sesshoumaru landed a short distance away so that Totosai couldn't sense his yokai. They walked the rest of the way and stopped behind a rock when a cave came into view.
"That's it?" Kagome asked in a whisper. Sesshoumaru gave a little nod in confirmation that was hardly noticeable. If it was her, she wouldn't pick a volcanic gas land for her home but she guessed for a fire demon he was living the dream.
"We should come from the side so he won't be able to see you till it's too late." Kagome suggested. He agreed with her plane.
"Age before beauty. Oh, wait. Your both." Kagome said sarcastically as she signaled with her hand that he should go down first. Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at her but didn't deem that statement worth commenting on.
They moved down the embankment and into position. Kagome signaled for the demon lord to wait there as she peeked around the corner. She couldn't see anything because the cave was so dark.
"Totosai?" Kagome yelled. Calling the old sword smith out. She heard shuffling from within.
"Kagome is that you? Where's lord Inuyasha." Totosai asked as he stepped out of the shadows. "Why are you here?" He gave her a suspicious look. Usually it was him who would seek out the group.
"You see I got myself into a bit of a bind. Can you help me? You got to promise though." Kagome pleaded making her self seem even more suspicious.
"I'll do what I can." Totosai answered. Kagome gave the old sword smith a desperate look. "Alright, I promise."
Kagome gave the sign that it was ok for Sesshoumaru to come out by giving the chain a tug. Totosai followed the chain in curiosity, just noticing it now, with his eyes till Sesshoumaru's silhouette appeared.
Totosai's bulging eyes widened. He could recognize that figure anywhere and freaked. Running for the back of the cave. Apparently he had an emergency escape rout made just for this specific reason.
Sesshoumaru sent the miko a look that said 'I told you this would happen' but she just signaled with her hand for him to wait a second.
"But you promised!" Kagome used her saddest whiniest voice which made the old sword smith stop in his tracks. She even pretended to be wiping at her tears when he looked back.
"What can I do" Totosai sighed in defeat as he closed the exit back up.
"Well it all started…" Kagome tried to explain the situation that her and the demon lord had gotten themselves into.
Sesshoumaru had already heard or experienced the whole thing so his mind became to wonder to more important things. The miko's voice had just begun to filter out when he noticed the smiths pet demon, Momo, and all he could think was 'cow!'.
He couldn't help but lick his lips in anticipation. Momo was very aware of the demon lords attention and became twitchy. Sesshoumaru was surprised when he was suddenly pulled down by his ear only to meet the face of a very perturbed looking miko.
He didn't think the miko had been paying attention to his actions but she was. Oh, Kagome was so glad she was.
She had managed to catch the movement of his tong moving across his lips out of the corner of her eye. Kagome thought it was a weird action for the demon lord to be making and followed his eyes to what had so vividly caught his attention.
To the… cow demon. Kagome couldn't believe she forgot about this and finally made a connection to her earlier thought of trepidation. He wasn't going to try and eat Momo was he?
Kagome couldn't be sure so she reacted on impulse and used the same technique that Inuyasha usually received if he was going to do something she didn't approve of and was close by. She knew how sensitive the hanyou's puppy dog ears were so they usually stopped him in his tracks.
Totosai couldn't believe the miko had the gull to grab the great demon of the west's ear and judging by his expression so was Sesshoumaru. The demon lords extreme shock was probably the only reason why the young women was still alive. The old smith pondered the relationship between those two.
"We don't eat other people's pets no matter how hungry we are!" Kagome emphasized her point by giving another little tug making Sesshoumaru almost let out a yelp.
Having his ears being just as sensitive or maybe more than his brothers. Never letting anyone before know of his weak point if they ever did get close enough to him to make use of it.
Sesshoumaru gave her a death glare and Kagome glared right back making her point. Not letting go until she got confirmation that he wouldn't go and eat the cow demon. Not just because she really liked Momo but because she doubted Totosai would help them after that.
Ever.
"Fine. The old fools cow demon is off limits. I get it." Sesshoumaru snapped at the miko in his monotone voice. Kagome opened her hand satisfied with his answer before going back to explaining to Totosai.
Sesshoumaru stood back up to his full height and began to rub the ear that was pulled. He frowned when he noticed the miko's proud expression that wasn't there before.
Kagome finished explaining not long after. "Well what do you think?" The old smith had a very contemplative look on his face when she got to the part of the story about the chain so she was very hopeful he had a solution.
"Put the chain on the anvil and we'll see what it says." They did that while Totosai went to fetch his hammer. Kagome tried to stay as far back without moving the chain out of place not wanting to get hit.
The smith swung his hammer hitting the chain dead on. Leaning down to hear what the vibrations said. Totosai kept nodding his head and making humming noises in understanding.
"Just as I thought. This was made by the master who taught me. It is very old magic. I can't remove it but I can change the properties so it may come off by its self." Totosai suggested.
" How would it remove it's self?" Sesshoumaru asked. Always the inquisitive one.
"I'll give the chain it's own free will so it'll be broken from the masters control. Sazuki in this case. It'll decide when the circumstances are to its own liking."
Sesshoumaru didn't really like the sound of an inanimate object deciding their fate but he guessed it was better than the situation they were in already so he gave the smith the go ahead.
Totosai, being the master concerning demon items he is only took an hour to complete his task.
"What are we supposed to do until the chain comes off?" Kagome asked Totosai.
"I would suggest just going along with what you normally do. It could be anywhere to a couple days or months until you two are separated again."
"Well I guess Inuyasha is probably scourging the whole of Japan looking for me right now so I better go and explain my disappearance." Kagome scratched her head.
"Last time I saw that baka he was looking for you very unsuccessfully. His nose is way worse than he boasts. Anyway, we have to retrieve my companions first." Sesshoumaru stated.
"I want to look for my friend…" Sesshoumaru cut Kagome off.
"You want to leave my ward for an even longer period with only Jaken for supervision and protection." Sesshoumaru gave the miko an incredible look.
"Your right we'll go pick up Rin first." Kagome agreed after imagining all the horrible situations those two could get into.
They set out straight away, not being invited by Totosai to stay the night even though the sun was already setting. When Kagome looked back at the entrance of the cave as they were leaving she could see the sword smith comforting Momo and sending a glare in the demon lords direction.
Kagome blamed Sesshoumaru for the cool welcome they received. She guessed he could seem intimidating on the first meeting (she experienced that first hand) but once you got to know him, underneath he was just a big cuddly dog.
Rin was a testament to that… or maybe it was just Rin.