Chapter Text
Sesshomaru stood at the edge of the western village. A demonic hoard had been building and slowly moving toward the village over the last two days. Something had been guiding the demons of the area and they were unmistakably coming in this direction.
He felt no strong feelings for the humans of the village, but he would not allow lesser demons to cause a problem by chasing him down. He stood, with calm pride, at the edge of the village’s main field. Whatever was coming would be brought to a swift end, and he intended to be the force that stopped it.
He was not prepared for a woman in strange, tattered clothes to come bursting out from the tree line in a full run. She was covered in dirt and the blood of many demons. Yet, even with the strong aroma, her scent was undeniably not that of a human.
A look of desperation flashed in her face as the pale figure of the stoic demon loomed in front of her. She was showing signs of deep weakness from a long fight as she stumbled several times while running across the field toward the village. He was willing to give the woman credit for how she managed to keep her feet under herself, in spite of the fatigue.
The hoard of demons that had been chasing her was less than a hundred meters behind her, ripping apart the tree line as they spewed into the field. It took less than a heartbeat for one of the demons to spot the fleeing woman. The tangled mess of small and medium sized demons wriggled around each other attempting to reach her first.
“Such riff raff is not welcomed in this village! Be gone! The lot of you!” Sesshomaru’s words were a warning that would not be heeded by such adamantly focused creatures.
His step was a slide, faster than any living creature’s vision was capable of tracking. The motion of his hand to extend the tendril whips from his vicious claws was effortless. His claws ripped the head of the front-most demon in half before the poison whip extended. He was deeply aware that the stream of demons that was chasing the woman was extreme, yet it took him no effort to dispel every last one of them.
Once demons had finally stopped coming out of the woods after the strange woman, he finally turned to examine her. It appeared that once he had stepped forward, she had fallen one last time and did not get back up. He presumed that her body had finally succumbed to exhaustion from evading the demons.
It left him asking, why would so many demons be chasing this strange woman? Sesshomaru was no fool, he was aware of the rumors of demons stirring up conflict to gain power. He would never engage in such debased behavior, but he had to wonder if this woman was sent as a means to set him up for such a fate.
He was surprised that she had somehow stayed alive for so long. It was now clear that she was what had been drawing the demons toward the village, but what she was and why she was here were both complete mysteries at this point. He clenched his back teeth as the shrill voice of his loyal imp began to rise from the direction of the village.
“My Lord! My Lord Sesshomaru! You did such a great job at dispatching those demons, none will ever think to make such a bold move on your territory ever again! Of that we can be certain!”
The imp nearly tripped over the unconscious woman before he realized she was laying in his path. Jaken let out a shriek as he jumped back. He froze a moment until he realized that she would not be able to threaten him as she currently was.
“Is this woman what those demons were after? She certainly looks strange, but not particularly powerful. What do you think, my Lord?”
Sesshomaru leaned in to lift up the woman, but as his hand touched her shoulder the scenery around them melted away. It took on the appearance of a dark room, filled with thick purple miasma. A male figure sat behind a paper shade.
Sesshomaru heard Naraku’s voice. It was repeating in rising and falling tones like a distant echo, yet the words were as clear as crystal, “Kill Sesshomaru”.
With a growl, Shesshomaru’s hand clenched into a fist as he turned in the direction that the voice seemed to come from. The woman cried out as his claws pierced her shoulder. The sound prompted him to release her, causing the illusion to break.
“Too many unanswered questions,” he said under his breath as he reached for her once more. Slowly and gently. He was more than a bit relieved that there were no strange effects on his second attempt to pick her up.
He stood still for a moment, looking down at the woman he had saved. He waited, feeling the last demonic aura lingering in the tree line of the woods. The scent of the demon who stayed in the shadows was also in the mix of scents coming from the strange woman in his arms.
“My lord Sesshomaru? Is something the matter?” Jaken had taken notice of his failure to return to the village with the woman.
Sesshomaru waited a few moments longer before the wind shifted. The last demonic presence was carried away before things settled as before. It became more clear that she was sent by the demon who had been causing trouble. Sesshomaru was confident that he was shown that scene to give him cause to distrust this woman as well. Whoever had sent her wanted the two of them to fight. The questions now centered around who had sent her, and what they sought to gain by having the two of them fight.
“Come Jaken. We will need to house this woman until she regains the ability to tell us why those demons were after her,” and with his command set forth, Sesshomaru made his way back toward the village.
As he held her so close, it finally struck him what was so strange about her scent. She did not have the scent of a human or like any of the magics he had encountered in their land. She had the scent of flowers, like sweet tree blossoms just before they bear fruit.
*****
Kagura returned to the castle as the sun began to edge over the horizon. The soft light of the dawning morning was swallowed up by the thick miasma that sat over the castle. Even as she landed in the courtyard, the thick purple clouds were barely disturbed.
She made her way through the main entry of the castle, passing the remains of the dead who had previously inhabited the grounds. She stopped at the ornate paper shade that marked Naraku’s room. She knelt with her head down and waited to be addressed.
“Well?”
“The woman made it to the western village. As you predicted, Inuyasha’s older brother Sesshomaru was there. I believe he took her to the village, but he would not leave the field while I was still there. The elder son of the dog demon has a truly keen nose. There’s no way he will believe that woman is human.”
Naraku laughed condescendingly at Kagura, “It is because she is so very clearly not a human that I expect Sesshomaru to keep her in his care. At least until she begins to unlock the memories I implanted in her.”
With a final chuckle, he leaned back and muttered to himself, “We’ll see if she can find a reason to trust Sesshomaru before that happens; because if she doesn’t… the assassin might just be assassinated.”