Chapter 28 - Misjudged
It was the next night when Sesshomaru began to have an inkling of what lurked beyond. Shifting the air, and tainting the wind. The moon was veiled, leaving the sky dark but for the billions of twinkling stars. They shone like stardust swirling across the open sky. Sesshomaru walked beneath their beauty, hardly giving it a passing glance. Something dark was hovering. An evil presence. A looming demonic aura. Though he could not definitively locate the source.
Slightly behind him Jaken followed, leading A-un by the reins. Rin was soundly asleep on the dragon's back. Every so often the scent of lilacs teased Sesshomaru's nose, when the wind changed directions.
"It sparkled! Hee hee. A star just sparkled! Uh… did you see Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken's question was met with silence. "Ehuh… h-hello?"
Sesshomaru barely heard the imp's yammering. The demonic aura was stronger now, as if he was nearing the source. Stopping at the edge of a grassy cliff, he turned to look up at the cloudless night sky. The scent suddenly became clearer, one that the yokai recognized instantaneously. At his feet, Jaken almost ran into his leg, then scrambled back.
"Lord Sesshomaru!"
Sesshomaru was silent for a moment, nose lifted to the wind. "A scent is in the air."
Pausing to sniff the air as well, Jaken made a sound. "You're right! It's the scent of that Naraku fellow who was so rude to you Lord Sesshomaru! Is... he… nearby?"
Sudden violent wind blew across the cliff, tearing at Sesshomaru's hair and clothing. Nearly blowing the imp off his feet.
Jaken cried out. "What's going on?! Wauughhh!"
It became so violent that Rin was blown off of A-un's back. Sesshomaru sensed rather than saw, her hit the grass with a sleepy moan as Jaken was blown head over heels nearby. The demon lord's eyes narrowed, this was not Naraku. As he expected, a half second later, Kagura landed before him in a crouch.
"Yo."
Jaken, from Rin's side sprawled on the grass spoke first. "Yo yourself."
"Sesshomaru. I assume you came here following Naraku's scent as well?"
"Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken cut in. "This wench is Naraku's incarnation!" Jaken pointed an accusative claw at the sorceress. Behind him, Rin blinked sleepily, trying to understand what was happening.
Sesshomaru ignored Kagura's lack of decorum, addressing him so personally. "Wind sorceress Kagura, I recall."
"So. You remember me." Her red painted lips tilted in a sly smile. "I am very flattered." The seductive tone of her voice was unmistakable.
Sesshomaru felt his irritation rising. Not responding, reached out and grasped Tokijin with his right hand, eyes narrowed in overt suspicion.
"Take your hand from your sword." Kagura insisted. "I didn't come to fight Sesshomaru. I have a proposition you might be interested in."
Though he was certain she had nothing that he could possibly want, he would find out her purpose. "Proposition?"
Kagura stepped closer and opened her palm for him to examine. Two purplish pieces of what appeared to be glass, sat in her palm. Power emanated from them. Shards of the Shikon no Tama.
"You know what these are Sesshomaru. I'll give you these sacred jewel shards. In return… I want you to… kill Naraku."
Jaken squealed from behind him "WHAT?!?" Rin crawled up beside Jaken, the two of them sat together, wide eyed in front of A-un's legs.
"Free me. Release me from his grasp."
Sesshomaru's eyebrows pulled together. Her request was altogether inappropriate. To come to him, to attempt bribe him to become her protector? Did the women know nothing of propriety? Not only that — she intended to betray Naraku? Why involve him in her schemes? Sesshomaru did not speak.
"You have the power to do it. Once you kill Naraku, all the sacred jewel shards he has gathered will be yours!"
The arrogance. Speaking so confidently, as if I would agree to such foolishness.
"Let's use those shards and provide ourselves with a little amusement." Her tone had shifted back to the sly seductress — reminding him of how his mother behaved when she wanted her way with Toga.
"You intend to betray Naraku?"
"Haa…" Kagura spat, turning her eyes away from him for the first time. "It's not as though I have chosen to live under his command." Now, the seductress was gone, and she sounded bitter. "What do you think of my plan? Joining forces would be of mutual benefit."
Kagura clearly had not anticipated that he may reject her — plan and everything else. Sesshomaru was silent for a couple heartbeats, wondering if she would become violent when angry. Inkimi had, at times, when her seductions had failed.
"Unfortunately, I have no interest in the sacred jewel. If you wish to become free, use those shards yourself and destroy Naraku."
Kagura's eyes flamed with fury, teeth bared at him like a feral animal. Yes. Definitely like his mother.
"Are you afraid of him?!"
"I'm saying, I'm under no obligation to assist you." She growled at him, and his expression hardened. "If you don't have the resolve to go it alone, don't even think about betraying him."
"FOOLISH COWARD!" Kagura was screaming at him now. Sesshomaru was fully prepared for her to lash out with more than her words. "AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A MAN?!?" Ah, so she was more of the type to lash out with insults than violence. No matter. Her words had no affect on him, as she had no meaning in his life.
On the ground beside him, Rin and Jaken gasped in unison, horrified at the insolence toward their Lord.
Insults would not get her what she wished — that wish being him. He'd been screamed at and bullied by a women far more powerful than she.
Panting from her fury, she grabbed one of the feathers from her hair. "I misjudged you."
Wind tore across the cliff. Rin and Jaken watched her rise into the air with gasping open mouths. Sesshomaru too, followed her retreat with his eyes, dispassionately.
"Pathetic FOOL!" Then she was gone, no more than a speck in the sky. And with her, so went the wind. Sesshomaru glared at the retreating form.
"Ha!" Said Jaken, leaping to his feet. "That despicable woman. You know I wonder if she truly intended to make you her protector. Talk about gall! Where on earth does she get the nerve?! An incarnation! That's all she is!"
Standing again, by his side, Rin spoke up. Her voice quite a bit softer than Jaken's imperial tirade. "You're so strong Lord Sesshomaru! You don't even need the power of the sacred jewel."
Wind sorceress Kagura. I wonder if she can use the sacred jewel and defeat Naraku by herself. Either way, it doesn't concern me.
Turning away, Sesshomaru headed back toward the plains and away from the cliff, leaving Jaken and Rin to stare after him.
"MiLord!" Jaken called. "Where are you off to?! Are you leaving already?"
Sesshomaru heard both Jaken and Rin's footsteps fall into step with him. Then Jaken's quickly retreated when he realized that he had left A-un standing on the cliff. Rin on the other hand, raced up beside him. With her wide innocent eyes she gazed up at him.
"Lord Sesshomaru! I'm not lonely anymore… But I wonder if maybe Kagura is."
Rin was expecting an answer, he could feel her gaze on his face. But he had none to offer her. Rin's innocence was refreshing and beautiful. She did not yet understand the wickedness and underhanded ways of the world. Kagura was only interested in having her needs fulfilled — on what he suspected was, multiple levels. Sesshomaru, would not be the one to fill them. He sincerely doubted that loneliness had anything to do with it.
Instead of dwelling on Kagura and her pitiable, but pointless plight, he shifted his thoughts to the other thing of interest she had spoken.
I assume you came here following Naraku's scent as well?
Had that strange demon, Naraku, amassed so much power, that he was drawing multiple foes? Sesshomaru had not caught Naraku's scent until immediately prior to Kagura's arrival. He had been following the amassing demonic aura, which now he concluded, must have been Naraku's. Who else hunted the demon? InuYasha possibly? While impulsive, he doubted that InuYasha would have started a feud with a more powerful demon, without some sort of instigation on Naraku's side. Troublesome. Sesshomaru realized that it was likely that he would need to investigate this further. An evil aura so large, could not be tolerated in the western lands.
From behind them, Jaken spoke. "Uh, eh… 'MiLord? What should we do about dinner?"