Chapter 3: At A Glance

"Die."

A poisonous whip flickered and beheaded his imprudent hissing target. Demon gore spilled on to the soil of the earth as the 'Killing Perfection' stood tall looking down at his latest victim with distaste and boredom. The monkey demon's death was a senseless slaughter that didn't need to have been committed yet due to recent events…pushed his hand. He looked out at the horizon taking note of the devastation on the outskirt of his lands. Silver hair shined underneath the evening sun's orange rays with a gentle brush of wind along his cheeks.

Something had come.

Sudden demon and human squabbles broke out into scuffles. The terrorization between the two fractions began to happen more frequently these days. Sesshomaru stood on the border of his lands watching over them with keen striking golden eyes. His deadly claws reached down to touch the earth feeling the dry texture crumble under the pads of his fingers. Some of the demons in a nearby village were outside in the sun giving their sweat and blood to the land only to look up at the Lord with pitiful expressions of a day lost. Everyone was suffering. The land was dry from the summer heat bearing very little crops for the upcoming fall months. The demon and human farmers in the countryside were getting very little in harvest. There was a hint of the complete decimation of the food system. If the farmers were struggling to feed their own, then how were they going to feed the much larger communities and towns. The demon population was stagnant, so the food sources wasn't an issue as of yet. However, the humans seemed to grow in numbers alarmingly high which would take more food and resources to feed. This note wasn't going beyond the glances of the demons. And they were starting to get frightened of being pushed out.

A distant sound reached his ears causing him to look to the east of his lands. He searched the horizon noticing the steady drop of the sun. A silent sigh escaped him. A solitary quiet moment of peace had ended. In a blink of an eye, he ran towards the eastern direction. Trees blurred past him as he dashed through the thick forest and jumped into the air, enjoying the wind in his face. His mind thought back on the frequent rogue demon attacks randomly bursting around the area. Such occurrences haven't happened since the perils of Naraku and his offspring. This caused him to grimace before putting his famous callous facade on for display.

Since the death of Naraku, things had calmed for what seemed like seconds before the real consequences came to fruition. Naraku caused so much upheaval that people and demons were afraid to settle down unless it was under a shogun of some kind. The shogun would provide a false pretense of protection in exchange for their sons and the men to join their ranks and attack other villages, communities, and shoguns. It wasn't just the humans doing this, but demons as well. Japan had erupted into civil war. Fractions at war with other fractions. Humans versus demons. Humans vs. humans. Demons vs. Demons. Except for the Western Lands in which he protected. Upon his return to the throne, he had made it very clear to all communities regardless of species that misconduct, unwarranted aggression, and threats won't be tolerated under his rule. He pointedly made a public announcement with the death of his own council member in front of his castle that such behavior resulted in immediate death.

As he grew closer to his target, he heard a loud sound of his guards ranting and arguing. Grunts and violent yells grew increasingly in sound the closer he came. His demonic hearing picked up on the sounds of metals and rustling. His nose was assaulted with a scent of burning copper, wood, and other materials. His eyes could see billows of smoke rising into the air and loud cries of children wailing away from up ahead. He sped up his pace wondering what could be causing such a commotion.

The sky rumbled and his honey hues glanced above him noticing the darkening grey skies and wind picking up. A flash of lightening could be seen slicing through the almost darkened heavens above his home. "Hm." He muttered before deciding to use his energy ball to transport himself quickly to the cause of destruction. Upon landing he watched the scene play out before him. A house was a blaze with lots of ofudas and kanji written on the building's surface. The flames licked the burning hut causing the nearby horses to jump in fright away from the disturbance only to be pulled down by their owners.

A demon woman was being grabbed by her black hair and yanked out of the burning house as she fought with all her might clawing at the man that held her at bay. Tears burned down her face as she screamed and cried out in between sobs. Her hands grabbed for the man that held her only to be punched down. The sky thundered violently around them seemingly exciting the men as they went to run through the town. The cries of something small echoed in the burning hut behind them.

"Please! No! We paid you!" She yelled furiously with more tears streaming down her face and falling onto her rumpled clothes. Her red eyes shining as she pleaded. The house burning and crackling wildly in the back.

Sesshomaru couldn't understand why she wasn't fighting back. She could have easily slaughtered the men even if she wasn't a warrior. As he approached, silently…he could see a glowing ofuda attached to her right arm. He squinted through the thicket of the trees and observed, rallying his strength. Already formulating a plan to cut them down with efficiency. The sky rumbled and his cheek was pelted by a wet drop of rain.

The solider gripping her by her long black hair looked to her with malice. He pulled her hair back with a hard yank and relished in her screams. "Yes, your HUSBAND paid us. But he failed to mention that he had a family here. And as you may know, we do not recognize demon-human marriages. They are abominations. So youkai whore you are without protection. Too bad that poor man didn't see his relationship with filth would be the end of him."

"Ryo!" She wailed among the laughs of the other surrounding men who jeered at her. The sky thundered and rumbled above them. The swelling of clouds growing eerily dark and treacherous by the second. A drop of rain began to hit her own tear-stained face.

Sesshomaru readied his hand when he noticed it. Something moved quickly inside the back of the burning hut. Having observed enough, Sesshomaru rushed forward in nothing more than a blur. With precision, he destroyed the men running amok in the nearby town first before they could do serious damage. He needed to keep their voices silent from alerting the shogun clearly obsessing over the youkai woman. The human bodies fell in lifeless piles at the feet of the villagers. Some of the demons were able to kill and fend for themselves while others seemed to be subdued. A few of the women were running around with scraps of cloth on their hands, ripping the ofudas off their youkai bodies. The painful wails of the removal echoed throughout but gave no warning to the shogun that his plot had failed. The men were working to control the damages around. Sesshomaru returned to finish the deed, wanting to relish in the moment of his beast finding enjoyment in the action of battle and blood soaking his fingers.

"Please my babies!" The youkai woman yelled out in utter distraught. Her pulls growing more frantic as the crackling of cinder grew behind her. The man dressed in full samurai garb laughed hysterically as he slapped her with another ofuda causing her nails to shrink down a bit. Her strikingly odd features now seemed to dim into that of a human woman. In a final attempt, she reached up and clawed him across the face. The man hissed as he looked to stab her with his sharp weapon but suddenly stiffened.

Sesshoumaru held in his hand the still beating heart organ of that of the villainous man who fell onto the dirt floor. More droplets of rain fell slowly onto his flesh and down his arms. His body fell sideways into the wet soil at Sesshomaru's feet. Another solider pulled out his sword from his side pocket before screaming in pain. Looking down he noticed he had no feeling in his left hand. He looked down and yelled in horror. Sesshoumaru watched the man's hand fall away from his body having been decapitated off. His fellow soldiers reacted to the attack with drawn weapons, but none made it close the demon before loud gurgling sounds of blood were heard. Their struggles to clear their life's liquid from their lungs echoed throughout the area. The emblem to the lands they belonged to angering Sesshomaru further. They were trespassers that grew emboldened. Possibly by the strange ofudas they manipulated.

The demon woman had escaped racing towards the house only to be stopped by the roaring flames. Timber fell from the front blocking the entrance. She turned to look at the Lord. "Please! Lord Sesshoumaru!"

Sesshoumaru watched the woman hold onto her wrist with emotions playing onto her face at hearing her babies wail before the sound stopped. The ofudas were taking affect and now changing her slowly before his eyes. He sniffed the air before turning to the hut himself and seeing the silhouette of a woman racing forward holding onto two forms in her arms. She broke through the entrance as pieces began to fall towards the ground around them.

"Oh!" The demoness wailed before running up to the woman and taking her babies in her arms. Sesshoumaru watched as the strange looking woman handed over the infants carefully revealing no signs of injury. The babies simply began to wail from the movement now that they were placed back into their mother's arms wrapped in warm blankets. The woman's snowy hair was held in a high ponytail with long fluffy tendrils flowed like clouds behind her. Her skin was the color of the richest star sunstone with patches of black soot covering her body and hair from the fire. Her eyes lined with dark kohl shined white like that of someone undergoing possession. her body was tucked in gold fabric that hung close to her body and stopped above the knees.

"Please save Ryo!" The woman yelled out running backwards to put a safety distance between the fire and her children.

The woman said something, but he couldn't understand what. She pointed frantically to the house causing the woman to cry harder. The woman sighed before stepping back to stand in front of the hut. She looked up into the sky with her arms up as more rain fell heavily down upon the area. The rain rushed and pelted the earth. The wind grew in speed, pushing the smoke sideways away from the village. Her arms rose above her head as water began to concentrate on one area of the house dousing the flames. He watched in silence as the roaring fire began to vanish quickly and finally it began dying out into cinders.

Once the flames were almost snuffed, the woman ran back into the house. He took a step forward hearing a groan before she emerged holding up a human man who was coughing profusely with damaged clothes, fringed hair, and soot covered skin. His eyes were shut, and he sported bruises and cuts having clearly been beaten before his wife before Sesshomaru's arrival. Rain fell slowly now and began to lighten as the seconds ticked by. The wet droplets hit his face and slowly his eyes began to open. Frantically, he searched and found the woman he clearly loved. Her name mumbling between the stutter is spit forth.

"Ryo!" The woman cried before running up to the injured man holding her two little ones. The foreign woman laid the man down gently away from the house checking him over before muttering again in her language.

The man coughed and reached for the youkai woman. "I p-put a barrier -(cough) – around – (cough) – the kids, Hiromi." Her husband spoke. "I-I'm so-"

The woman couldn't speak but just nod before reaching down to hug him. Sesshoumaru continued to watch the scene before looking at the odd woman as she gracefully stood up after checking the man over and the small family. She pulled a red ribbon out of her hair and ran her fingers through the giant mass as it fell around her. Her eyes changed from its luminescent white color to royal blue as she concentrated on pulling her hair neatly back in its place before making eye contact with him. He took note of her exotic look and almost goddess like appearance. Her arms were wrapped in gold and ivory bracelets. Her feet were decorated in strange shoes, and on her back held two weapons oddly shaped and rounded. She took a step forward and immediately he narrowed his gaze upon her stopping her in her tracks. She said something but he couldn't understand what she was saying, and he watched her grow silent while watching her analyzing gaze take him in as if she had come to some realization.

He watched her body language which spoke of great power and upbringing. She stood very controlling of herself unlike others who spoke less with words and more with their hands. Her shoulders were relaxed yet held up with good posture. She spoke with her head up looking directly into his eyes which he found very odd and fought the need to look away from someone making intense eye contact with him. She didn't shake in fear of him, and she looked upon him in determination and curiosity more than anything. The power she displayed having vanished along with the clearing of the skies above. Her features were striking as she just stared daringly back at him. Her words fell having realized that there may be a language barrier. He regarded her coldly for a minute before turning away seemingly forgetting about the family that suffered a moment ago.

Sesshomaru looked about the village and the dead. He watched the ofudas being removed from their bodies. The screams of pain and the dousing of fire with water continued. Horses ran amuck around and out of the village. The strange woman behind him was of the least of his concerns.

For now.

The more pressing questions growing alarm in his chest as he walked away. What were the humans up to now? He knew this wasn't going to be the last. But he would make sure they wouldn't dare try it again on his lands. He would slaughter them all if they tried.