A Demon of a Woman /Sesshomaru Calls\*
Chapter 2
I leapt across a few roofs in the direction the wind had followed when he first disappeared, then I stopped. If this was an actual mission, I had to do it right; I couldn't just blindly run in. I tried to recall the scent I had barely caught off the wind before-it was like breathing in the morning dew after night of rainfall. That plus a hint of orchid, it was a calm and serene smell.
If only I knew that I could make quite the opposite statement of its owner.
With this scent in mind, I tried to use my senses to sniff him out. 'Sniffing him out'-one of the heightened abilities I've come to find go hand-in-hand with my 'differences'.
My ear tried to twitch out of instinct as I thought I picked something up, but the wig held it tight against my head. I followed his scent, and aura, across town where it led me to a long flight of steps. The sign at the bottom said it was the home of the Higurashi Shrine. With one great leap I reached the top and looked around. But it just looked exactly as the sign said, just some old shrine. From the outside, I didn't see anything special about it, and from the inside there was nothing but a well that was even older than the shrine surrounding it.
"But there's no outlet?" I murmured aloud to myself, confused as to why I brought myself here. 'Well, here goes nothing…' I thought before deciding to fulfill the wish of that nagging feeling in my stomach. It was pulling me towards the well and something in the back of my mind whispered for me to jump in, so I did.
Before my head even made it below the top ledge of the well, I was consumed by swirls of mysterious purple and blue lights. They circled around me like the wind circled that man on the rooftop. At first it felt as though I were falling with the wind just swirling around me, but then it emitted the slightest glow and with a jerk I could feel my body being pushed up, my hair blowing towards the sky. It only took a few seconds and then it dissipated. I found myself falling with a thud to my knees.
"What was that?" I gasped while patting down my body. I wanted to make sure I hadn't acquired a tail or a third arm in the process of whatever that was. "Ok, good" I sighed in relief when I found everything to be in place.
I noticed the black ribbons which had untangled themselves from my hair drift to the ground beside me, falling from my shoulder. I looked up from the ground and noticed vines vine now coming down the wall which hadn't been there before. Not wasting anymore time, I picked up the ribbons, quickly lacing them back into the two loose pigtails, then settled myself into a crouch and leapt. I was out of the well in one bound.
'What's happened to me? Where am I!' I panicked as I took in my surroundings. 'Where'd the shrine go? The paved streets?'
It seemed I had taken a leap from the concrete jungle of Japan and find myself in the real-'wait…that scent..orchids and-'
I let out a cry of shock, finding myself across the forest and pinned to a tree in merely seconds.
"Why have you followed me?" I heard a voice just inches from my face.
My eyes had squeezed closed at impact into the tree, just trying to focus on the gasps of air I needed under the grip upon my throat. 'Does this person not realize I need air to speak?!' I thought sarcastically. And that was probably a thought best kept to myself, I thought as well, when I squinted one eye open to find one very angered face too close for comfort.
If I had enough air to breath I would have gasped, realizing I was now face-to-face with the mystery man in the night.
"Why have you followed me?" He repeated when I did not answer. By the tone in his voice, he clearly did not like repeating himself.
I opened my mouth as if to speak, but of course nothing but maybe a squeak was going to make it out. I took a chance, hoping this didn't seriously back-fire on me, and smacked at his one hand still around my throat; one hand still holding me pinned to the tree. 'Holy hell! One hand! He can lift my entire body with one hand like it's nothing…maybe I shouldn't have smacked him'.
He raised one brow at me in question to my assault. This time I tugged at his hand in a motion to remove. He growled in detest to obey the demands of what he currently considered a foe, but he knew he couldn't continue to cut off my air supply if he expected answers.
Without warning, he opened his hand and let me go as if it was the simplest action. He dropped me from a few yards in the air, which I only now realized as I plummeted toward the forest floor. But after leaping across rooftops to catch up with this man, I wasn't exactly worried about the fall. I almost landed with a grace, until some small furry animal scampered right where I was to land. I stumbled back, and now had the honor of looking up at my assailant from on my ass.
I wasn't even steady on my knees before he was down to my level. His hand was back at my throat, but only hovering above the flesh to convey his threat. Just because he let me go didn't mean he was done with me. But still, I didn't answer his question. Not yet.
"Why were you watching me on my roof?" I questioned, not bothering to answer his.
His face remained emotionless, so it was hard to tell what he was feeling. His 'non-grip' around my neck closed in a little further, clearly suggesting the anger that was hidden under his chiseled features.
"You will do well to answer me if you value your life" He said, his voice also giving away the necessary emotions that he did not express.
"I…I" 'Yeah, this is the time to let nerves sink in. Let's follow after him blindly to wherever the hell this is and then falter…'
"What are you?" He asked, now impatiently skipping the first question.
"I…I am Corrine-" I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, "-Matsumoto-Ah!" I hissed. A burning sensation rippled across the skin of my neck as Sesshomaru started to draw the acid from his poison claw to the surface of his palm. It wasn't even direct contact. Just the residual from close proximity was enough to know that I did not want that palm to touch me.
"I didn't ask for introduction. What are you?" He growled. The sear in my skin increased with the threat of his again tightening grip.
I tried to pull back away from his grip, but again I found my back being blocked by a tree. The fumes from the poison were getting to me, making it hard to breath. Just as I was starting to see spots, I vaguely hear a voice in the distance followed by a *Woosh* that would have startled me in a truly conscious state.
There was an audible *ping* in the tree right beside my head and I lolled it to the side to see a glowing arrow embedded in the bark. Again, if I was in another state, I might be terrified that an arrow narrowly missed my skull just now.
"Kagome, be careful! There is a human with him!" A voice shouted out in the distance.
"Goddammit, Sesshomaru! Let go of the girl and face me! We both know it's me you're after, so why don't you put your pity party anger on someone your own size." Another voice growled.
Right as I was seconds away from block out, the burning heat from around my throat disappeared. There was no more hand keeping me from moving side-to-side for fear of touching the poison. In a moment of weakness, I slumped to the side, lying against an unearthed tree root for support.
Even in this state, I had this unnerving feeling that something bad was about to happen. And to top it off, I was in the worst spot possible for it, and my body was still too slow between the prior lack of oxygen and threat of poison. I felt something grasp the hem of my dress and pull, scuffling my backwards along the ground. That bad feeling that had washed over me was slowly drifting farther away with every inch I was moved, so I allowed whatever it was to drag continue dragging me…as if I had enough oomph to stop it at this moment anyway.
"T-thank you" I breathed out, reaching a hand aimlessly in the direction of what was moving me. I caught my hand in a fist of fur and finally opened my eyes to find a blur of yellow fur in my vision. With a coo it turned around and nuzzled its head against mine and licked a scratch o my face. "Uh, uhm…" I twitched nervously. Big sweat drops formed everywhere as I took in the sight of the enormous feline towering over me. It was far larger than even a tiger…'God, I hate tigers…' The thought made me shudder, especially since I now associated it with this giant beast.
Remembering my had was still fisted in its fur, I let it go. Its soft fur slipped through my finger, and in a way, it was soothing. I felt slightly guilty for my last thought. "Thank you" I mumbled, not being able to look at it at first. After a few moments I finally did and the giant feline just nodded its head at me as it if understood; then it turned back to the battle that was behind her in a defensive stance.
"Are you okay?" A small, child-like voice piped in from behind me. It crawled over my shoulder and sat on my stomach before I could even look back at where it had just stood behind me a moment ago. My body froze, my eyes only seeing those fangs and pointy eyes that got closer and closer. His face was only inches from mine, "Hello?" He called, waving his hand over my face.
A barely audible 'eep' caught in my throat, my body mechanically dating-practically doing a crab walk-back away from the little creature.
The little creature was taken off guard and spiraled backward, landing head down with his tail in the air…'Tail?...Tail!' My eye twitched nervously with an almost fury now. 'What is this place?'
"Lady watch out!" The thing came running back at me, pointing furtively at the battle ensuing.
A bright light had just emitted from 'Sesshomaru's' blade, sweeping through the earth and tearing it apart.
"Shit" I whispered. I swiped the kid with the furry tail into my arm and took a leap to the side to avoid the attach.
*Swoosh*
The wind from the sweep cut across the plains and hit me in the leap, throwing me and sliding me through the ground. I hissed as the rocks scraped against the now bare skin of my shoulder. Not even 10 minutes on this side of the well and I've already torn part of the sleeve on my dress.
"What the fuck kind of sword is that?" I grunted, hissing as I brushed the pebbles from my shoulder.
"That's the tokijin. Sesshomaru made it from the fang of an evil demon with the purpose to destroy Inuyasha with it."
I hesitated to implore further, shuffling away with another sweat drop at the words 'evil demon' and 'purpose to destroy'. So I asked instead, "Who's Inuyasha?"
The little boy stood proud with his head held high as he pointed to the silver haired man in the red outfit.
'Goddammit Sesshomaru! Let go of the girl and face me!' The words echoed through my mind…'That must have been him. He's the one that saved me from-' "Sesshomaru" I breathed, turning my attention to the man that seemed to be weightlessly floating In the air as he brought his sword back up.
His name, it parted from my lips like a deep breathy sigh…why, I'm not sure
And then he stopped-mid swing-and locked eyes with me. The red slowly dissipating from his eyes, and slowly widening with…shock?
*I do not own the Inuyasha manga or TV series. I do not have any affiliation with the writer of this series. This book is a fanfiction and I do not own any of the characters that are from the Inuyasha series. The only character that is mine is the original character Corrine Matsumoto