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Beware the Man-eating Demoness

Ignoring their reactions Sesshoumaru lifted his original arm and getting a grip on his present, temporary replacement gave it a good, hard yank, which detached it from his shoulder with a rather sickening sound. Throwing the unusable arm away he reached out and taking the new arm slid it into place, holding it there while his body began to assimilate it, attaching it to his own bone and muscle.

"That's really cool..and really gross at the same time." Aiden said under his breath, morbidly fascinated by the whole process. In his time Sesshoumaru's arm had been permanently replaced so he'd never seen his best friend's father have to do this. How cool was that though, to just be able to replace a limb like that. If you got over the whole chopping and pulling off of arm it was majorly wicked. It was like he was Borg or something.

"As much as I hate to point this out...nothing happens in this area without Satsuki's father knowing it. Plus he's a seer, he might be able to tell us more than Lady Tomoyo ever could." Sending her mother a regretful look Sora couldn't not say it either. The sooner they killed Ferio and went home, the better for her chances were of being born. At least she hoped so. Right now, she wasn't so sure her parents weren't doomed to never be her parents. How that would affect the timeline she knew was too mind boggling to comprehend "We women could go, she won't have any interest in us. The rest of you could go scouting out the area instead. My resemblance to Father should be enough to get us an audience with him."

"Splitting up would be pointless. We need to be close enough that if we did run into Ferio or some other threat we could lend each other aid. In order to be that close to you but still separate would still put us under Satsuki's watch. She'd be keeping an eye out for us anyway seeing as she would have heard that Father is in the area. I would imagine the appearance of this group has turned a number of heads." Kohaku pointed out, not liking the idea any better then the rest of them. After all, for a time Satsuki had contemplated making him his father's replacement in her affections. His parents had put a stop to that but the ingrained dislike of her ran deep. Unfortunately, they had to be practical about all this. The needs of the many and all that communist crap. "You know she makes it her business to collect information about him." He added, to get his point across.

"Which means she's probably going to come looking for us anyway, right?" Hermione asked, not looking forward to meeting this woman at all. This Satsuki better keep her claws out of her Daddy, Ren and Aiden or she was going to kick some dominatrix ass.

"Probably." Shrugging his shoulders slightly Sesshoumaru wasn't pleased at the idea of seeing Satsuki but his daughter and son both had good points. Plus, the last thing he needed was for Satsuki to come hunt him down or worse, send some of her suitors to collect him. Been there, done that, done the necessary blood shedding. "We'd be better off going to them rather then wait for her or some of her lackeys to arrive."

"Then I guess that's settled." Inu yasha had never met this Satsuki before but he had a feeling he was really going to regret agreeing to go see her father. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the only thing they could do unless they wanted to keep walking around like chickens with their heads cut off. "So what sort of demon is her father? Is he as bad as she is?"

"No, actually. Lord Ayame is his daughter's polar opposite. He's disgustingly harmless." Letting go of his new arm Sesshoumaru flexed the fingers then bent the arm to make sure that everything was in working order. "The barrier over the castle is Satsuki's work. If it weren't for his connection to our family I'd imagine someone would have easily invaded his lands by now."

"Well then, lets get going." Mika announced with a thumbs up. 'The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave!"

No one was happy as they all trudged towards the holding where hopefully the villainous Satsuki's father could shed some light on where they needed to begin their search for Ferio once more. The women were all worried about their men folk and the men folk with any sense were worried about themselves. After all, their host wasn't likely to help them a hell of a lot if they offended his daughter. It didn't need to be stated for everyone to know that they'd risk being thrown out rather than let the woman get her hooks into any of the men. Probably the only men who weren't weary were Sesshoumaru, Inu yasha and Ren. Sesshoumaru because he was used to dealing with her and Inu yasha and Ren because they were both too pig headed and dense to realize that Satsuki was of any threat to them. Sesshoumaru's sons knew differently of course and Kyou, Aiden and Triton had heard enough horror stories to be equally weary.

"So what exactly does she do to these guys?" Rin asked from Sango's arms, tired out from a long day of walking with hardly any stop. Triton had carried her for a while and that had been nice too, Rin thought sleepily, laying her head on Sango's shoulder. Triton had smelled like the sea and Sango smelled like flowers.

"Very bad things." Was the best Sango could come up with. After all, she didn't know exactly what this Satsuki did to her men but she had some idea and there was no way she was explaining any of that to the poor girl.

"Oh." Yawning Rin lifted her head to look over at her Master who was leading the way with her "little" brothers walking on either side of him. It was weird to have demons who looked just like her master call her their big sister. "She better not do bad things to Triton or I'll have Master beat her up."

Chuckling Sango turned her head to place an affectionate kiss on the little girl's head. "And if he won't I'll do it for you."

"Thanks, Sango."

"How pathetic. You'd expect this from half and quarter demons but full grown ones? Afraid of a mere woman." Ren scoffed, walking between Hermione and Mina for the moment. At the moment, they were the only ones who were willing to be around him. Since he'd recovered somewhat from his trip into the mountain he'd been in a mood that brought to mind a mortally wounded predator, ready to snap at the slightest provocation. In other words, everyone was doing their best to keep him as far away from Mika as humanly possible.

"I get the distinct feelings she's a lot more then a mere woman, Ren." Making allowances since the kid had been traumatized Mina tried not to let that comment get to her. "If she can turn some of the strongest demons around into physiologically castrated puppets...the girl's obviously got skills."

"I almost hope she jumps on Ren like a flea on a dog." Mika muttered, her perfect hearing picking up on Ren's comment as if he'd been standing right beside her. "But in his state she won't be interested in him at all. At least not in her usual way. She might kill him if he keeps shooting his mouth off like that. Unless I kill him first."

"This is one of the few times it's a very good thing that women intimidate the hell out of me." Aiden agreed with a rueful smile, walking beside her. "That and me being human of course." As far as he knew humans didn't interest Satsuki in the least. He could only hope anyway.

"Well if she's tries anything, I'll wipe the floor with her." Slugging a friendly arm over his shoulder Mika smiled, amused as he went red though he didn't look away, a sure sign of their bond.

"Thanks." His smile shy and sweet Aiden knew he could depend on Mika to keep him safe from any girls that might try something. She'd been doing it for years after all.

"You really are afraid of girls, aren't you?" Miroku commented with a shake of his head, still stunned and shocked at the idea that any son of his, after generations of lechers, was afraid of the fairer sex. What was not to like about them?

"Well not all girls...and afraid isn't exactly the right word." Rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly Aiden tried to finds the words to explain to his father, who was obviously having a hard time accepting all this. "I like them well enough...I just get really nervous around them, that's all. If I don't know them, I worry about every little thing I do."

"He does. It's sad." Kyou piped up, patting Aiden on the back sympathetically. "That's why his only real girlfriend was Mika. He's known her since he was a baby after all."

"WHAAAA!" Various heads turned in shock to stare at Aiden and Mika, neither of them understanding why they were being gapped at. Well not right away, it didn't take them long to clue in once the adults started commenting on the fact.

"You courted Inu Yasha and Kagome's daughter!"

Not quite sure why his father looked like he was going to have a heart attack Aiden slowly nodded his head, his confusion plain on his face. "What's wrong? Your face is bright red."

"Why the hell would you want to go out with him?" Inu yasha demanded to know, staring at his daughter in disbelief. "Your mother could probably kick his ass!"

"Inu yasha, that's mean!" Was said mother's reaction.

"Well that's true, mainly because I'd never raise a hand against Aunt Kagome." Aiden was so used to people telling him that he was a wimp it didn't faze him at all to hear his uncle talking about him that way. The truth was the truth after all. He wasn't a wimp but he was no where in his father or mother's league, much less Mika's.

"Those two were a couple?" Gapping at Mina and Hermione, both of who had nodded in unison, Ren completely forgot about all his other problems as the idea of those two together blew everything else from his mind. What would a strong, stubborn warrior like Mika want with that weak, submissive human who was actually afraid of not just women but human women at that! They were polar opposites, that human in no way her equal. She might have been only a quarter demon but she could still do better then to lower herself to such a pathetic choice. What had she been thinking?

"It was a surprise." Mina agreed, understanding his reaction perfectly. "But in a way, I think it could have worked, if they'd decided to stay together. They really did compliment each other nicely."

"No they didn't." Was Hermione's muttered opinion, having never liked the idea of her cousin ending up with Aiden. Anyone with a brain in their head could have seen it was definitely not a match made in heaven. They were so obviously wrong for each other which was why they'd broken up.

"You never did approve." Mina agreed, giving her daughter an amused look. She was pretty sure her daughter had never figured out just why she'd hated the idea so much. It was quite the little triangle their children had going on, thought Mika really didn't factor in anymore, not that Hermione seemed to be aware of it. If course Aiden had no idea either, thanks to her daughter being clueless as well. Ah what tangles we weave when parents didn't interfere, Mina thought to herself, a slightly devious smile on her face. If things didn't improve, she was going to stick her nose in, right where it belonged.

"But she obviously came to her senses and dropped him like a stone." To Ren's way of thinking, that was the only logical explanation. She'd simply gone temporarily mad but had recovered her senses in time before any major harm was done.

"Who's to say." Mina answered with a casual shrug of her shoulders. "They certainly didn't."

"I just love peoples reactions to those two." Dare commented with a grin, stretching his arms over his head. He was in no rush to go anywhere, especially since there was nothing to look forward to at the end of this walk. "It was always so amusing."

"Well I still don't get why she'd want to court a guy like him. Well, at least he's better then his father. If he'd been like Miroku, I would have had to kill him." Was Inu yasha's opinion on the whole matter. The idea of his daughter with a pervert like Miroku was too horrible to comprehend. It was bad enough just traveling with the monk.

"Well I think they'd make a cute couple..sort of. I'd have thought Hotaru would be more his type though." Kagome commented as she looked over her shoulder at the young man in question, who was still trying to explain his "condition" to his father.

"Nah, that's the real kicker about Aiden." Dare said with his famous grin aimed in his aunt's direction. "Aiden's just like most of us in our taste in women. We all like our women to have spirit as well as good looks. We all grew up with strong female role models like you after all. A weakling without a backbone wouldn't exactly last long around us either. Can you imagine someone like that being able to handle my father and Aunt Mina?"

"Good point." Was her dry response.

"So your mate is a strong one?" Sesshoumaru asked, knowing that his eldest son was the only one who had a wife. He liked what he'd seen so far of Rin's choice, even if he was only a water demon.

"Strong is not the word I'd use to describe Keely." Dare interjected before Kohaku could answer his father's question. "That's too tame and weak to describe just what sort of a woman she is."

"Unfortunately, your youngest son is too weak minded to handle a woman like my wife." Was Kohaku's icy response as he sent his youngest brother a look that had the younger man cringing slightly. "You approve of her, father. I doubt very much I could have found her better outside of our family."

It was quite dark when the men called a halt to the grueling pace they'd set to get through Lord Ayame's lands as quickly as possible. The humans in the group were ready to drop and none of them offered to stay up for watch as they pretty much collapsed to the ground to rest while the demons took care of setting up camp. Shippou and Rin had fallen asleep long ago and so the adults kept their voices down as those who needed to eat did so while Kohaku took a perch in a tree to take the first watch. Andrea and Triton had both gone underwater in a nearby river as soon as they'd stopped, stopping only to confirm that they weren't needed for anything else. The humans were all soon asleep once their heads hit whatever they were using as bedding and the demons stretched out as well, some sleeping while others talked quietly amongst themselves.

Using a tree's trunk as a back rest Ren glared in the direction of Mika who was sleeping on her side with that damn human weakling right beside her, the two facing each other with a shared blanket over them. He didn't know why the sight enraged him so but it did. He hoped the damn blanket caught on fire.

"Interesting bunch." Kouga commented as he took a seat beside the younger wolf demon, trying his best to hide how much he didn't want to be doing this. His mate had ordered him to and he was pretty sure he didn't want to know what she'd do if he didn't. He'd only been around the woman for a little more than a day and already she intimidated the hell out of him. That and she was always touching and cuddling against him when he tried to argue with her. How the hell was he supposed to argue with her when she was doing that anyway?

"It's humiliating being seen with them."

"No offense, kid, but I get the feeling they'd say the same about you." Kouga said carefully, silently cursing his mate for talking him into doing this. "Now I don't know you but I know your father pretty well so I can get some idea of just what sort of man he expects you to be. I'm not going to lecture you but whatever happened in that mountain...no one here's at fault for that. In fact there's someone in this group you should be thanking for getting you the hell out of there. You wanted to come here for a reason right? To help us all destroy Ferio so that the attacks on our packs will stop. Well you won't do that if you're nothing but a pain in their sides. They don't think much of you and you're just reinforcing that idea by behaving like a sulking brat. Be a man and then maybe you'll have a chance of kicking Mika's butt someday. Right now, we both know you don't stand a chance." Having said his piece, as crappy as it was, Kouga rose and walked over to another tree where he sat down, leaning back against it with a content sigh. His feet were killing him at the moment.

"So how'd it go?" Mina asked as she plopped down beside her mate, turning her face into his neck to nuzzle there, grinning in the darkness as her sensitive ears heard the sharp gasp he made at the unexpected show of affection.

"How should I know." Doing his best to frown Kouga could feel his cheeks going red as she curved her body against him, molding to his side. By the gods she smelled good, he thought, trying to concentrate and finding it increasingly difficult.

"Awww, you're blushing, aren't you?"

"Shut up."

"Careful...or I'll make you shut up..in a good way of course." Was her seductively teasing answer.

"Nevermind. Talk all you want."