Chapter 65

Mai's ideal man




Jaken got up as he saw Sesshomaru-sama returning with Mai thrown over his shoulder. As expected, the girl was screaming and struggling – not that it was something unusual. The dog demon landed and placed the woman on the ground. Jaken eyed Mai suspiciously when he noticed her disheveled kimono. What had happened again? Two days ago he spotted her wearing only his master's haori, blushing fiercely. Something strange was happening and Jaken was unsure, whether he really wanted to know what. On the top of all, Sesshomaru-sama was surprisingly lenient to the human girl, what was not like him. Jaken took a good look at Mai. The imp didn't really considered it earlier, but the girl could pass as attractive – Jaken preferred of course the imp women, especially his sweet Hotaru, but Sesshomaru sama was a healthy young demon and as such must feel some attraction towards the females. The human girl was the only woman in their group, not counting Rin – she was still just a little child. Was it possible that Mai was seducing Sesshomaru-sama? It wouldn't be strange given how dashing and powerful his master was, without doubt no woman could resist him.

The imp sighed heavily. It looked like Mai's evil intrigue was working – Sesshomaru-sama indeed acted not like his usual self around her. Didn't he remember that he despised humans? Perhaps it was a minor flaw inherited from his father, Inuyasha also tended to become involved with human women… Jaken made a decision. He will protect his master from being seduced by Mai with all his might, for his own good.

"Jaken-sama!" the imp snapped back to reality, as Rin tugged his nose. The child shook him by his shoulders. "Didn't you hear, that Sesshomaru-sama told you to dress Mai's wound?"
The imp obediently bandaged Mai's arm and soon the group was on their way. The girl felt awkwardly, feeling the stares of Rin and Jaken on herself.

I won't definitely let Sesshomaru-sama become infatuated with Mai. – thought Jaken.
I will help Sesshomaru-sama and Mai fall in love. – Rin decided in her mind.



Mai was walking between Rin and Jaken, admiring the beautiful landscape – in modern Japan such natural beauty had been destroyed by people long ago. It was really amazing to be able to see the forest, hills and mountains the way it were in the sengoku era. The girl couldn't help, but feel, that over the centuries humans lost quite a lot for the sake of the development.

"Mai!" she felt Rin tugging her sleeve and looked down to gaze at the kid.

"Yes, Rin?" she asked. The child made a serious face, what Mai found to be rather cute.

"Do you like someone?" the kid asked. Mai smiled.

"Of course I do. I like you, Jaken, Ah-Un, Kagome and others." She answered. The child furrowed her brows.

"I didn't mean that way! I mean love." Rin said. The child inwardly rolled her eyes. Why Mai must be so clueless? Rin wanted to know, if after her plan with bathing in the hot springs her friend loves Sesshomaru-sama already.

"Love?" Mai asked, surprised by the question.

"Yes." Rin nodded enthusiastically. "Like my mom loved my dad, like you love someone you want to marry."

The older girl gawked at the child. Since when Rin was so knowledgeable in the topic of love? She decided to inquire.

"Rin, from whom do you know such things?" Mai asked.

"From Shiori." The kid answered and stared at her, gripping her sleeve tight. "So do you want to marry someone? Well?"

Mai nearly chuckled as she realized who Rin was mimicking right now – she sounded just like Sesshomaru, who wanted to get some information out of her. She guessed, that it couldn't be helped since Rin travelled nearly two years with him. However, the questions about marrying were strange. Mai flinched when she remembered the time, when she was about to get herself a husband. It was when she fell into the trap of that monstrous madman Maeda Goemon.

"I don't even want to think about something like marrying!" Mai said loudly. Jaken cleared his throat.

"You should, especially when you're still young. You should find yourself a nice human husband." The imp said, emphasizing the word "human". Maybe he, Jaken, should be a matchmaker and help the woman find someone of her own kind, so that she won't bother Sesshomaru-sama anymore.

"What do you mean by 'still young'?" Mai asked, sending the imp a poisonous glare. However, after spending a hundred years with Sesshomaru, Jaken was quite immune on that sort of glares and didn't even flinch.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Seventeen. My eighteenth birthday is the next month." She replied.

"Almost eighteen?" Jaken shook his head. "If you don't hurry with marrying you will be an old maid!"

"What?!" Mai exclaimed, angered by the remark. "I'm not old!"
Jaken smirked and folded his arms.

"Most of women in your age have their first child already, some have even the second." The imp told her, observing as her face was turning red with anger. "Didn't you have any suitors?"

Mai was getting really mad at the imp's snappy remarks. Damn, she wasn't even eighteen yet and he was calling her an old maid already? What the hell? True, the things were different in this era than in modern Japan, but an old maid… She gritted her teeth.

"Suitors?" she repeated, clenching her fist. Jaken meant boyfriends by that, right? Well, she didn't even had a single one before – Mai was just not the kind of girl popular with boys, but as princess Amayami she had two fiancés. She winced. One of them was dead and the other tried to murder her, currently also dead. You can't call that having luck in love life. She muttered response to Jaken. "I had two fiancés… but Sesshomaru killed the both."

"Oh." Jaken answered, not knowing what to say.

Rin saw her chance. Silly Jaken-sama upset Mai and the child didn't like how the conversation turned out. She decided to cheer her friend up and inquire if Sesshomaru-sama has some chances of winning Mai's love.

"Mai, what kind of boys do you like?" the kid asked. Mai scratched her chin, thinking.
"Let's see… An ideal guy should be nice and kind…" she said.

Rin smiled, happy with the answer. Good. Sesshomaru-sama was both nice and kind to Mai. He was always kind enough to rescue her every time, she got in trouble and so nice, that he wasn't hitting her like he hit Jaken. The child eagerly waited for the rest.
Mai sighed, picturing an ideal man in her mind.

"He must be chivalrous." She decided.

"What's chivalrous?" Rin asked. Jaken cleared his throat.

"A man is chivalrous, when she saves a woman from danger and is well-mannered." Jaken explained.
The child's eyes brightened. Great! Sesshomaru-sama was always like that!

"Mai, must he be handsome?" Rin asked.

"Umm… I'm not really picky, I mean that he shouldn't be hideous, some flaws are okay." The girl said.

Rin nearly jumped with joy. Sesshomaru-sama was very handsome, but she was a little worried what would Mai think of his missing left arm. He was fighting amazingly even without it, but she heard that in general women didn't like men with cut off limbs. However, Mai said, that she would be fine with it. Everything pointed to that, Sesshomaru-sama would be a perfect match for her friend. Only one issue was remaining.

"Mai, he must be a human or he can be a demon?" the child asked. Jaken tensed, sensing dangerous topic. However Mai didn't seem to be bothered by the question.

"I guess that it makes no difference as far as the guy is decent and there is love involved." She answered. "I know some youkai, who are like that, after all."
Rin laughed inwardly. Mai must mean Sesshomaru-sama!

"Who?" the child asked, anticipating the answer with excitement. Jaken, on the other hand, seemed to be somewhat depressed. Mai furrowed her brow, making a mental list of nice demons.

"Let's see… Jaken, Shippo, Ah-Un, Kirara, Myoga, Totosai… Inuyasha? No, rather not – he's got a horrible temper. Actually, I feel sorry for Kagome." She said slowly, thinking if she mentioned every decent demon she met. Myoga told her, that Sesshomaru's and Inuyasha's father was a kind demon, but she somehow doubted it, given how the both brothers behaved.

As she finished enumerating, Jaken let out a relieved sigh.

Rin gawked at Mai, confused. Didn't her friend forget about someone?

"And Sesshomaru-sama?" the child asked. "Isn't he a descent demon too?"

"Him?" Mai looked surprised. "I think he has the second place from the end of the list."
Rin hung her head, disappointed. She thought, that Mai noticed Sesshomaru-sama's good points, but she didn't. What should she do now? It seemed, that getting the two together would prove more difficult than expected.

"Mai, who has the first place from the end on your list?" Jaken asked, pleased, that he was worried for nothing. Obviously he was imagining things.

"Naraku."



Sesshomaru listened to the foolish conversation between Jaken, the woman and Rin. Not that he was interested in the human woman's personal affairs, but the information that she had two fiancés already disturbed him. The mere thought of some human males around her made his demonic blood boil and he felt the urge to rip them to shreds, but apparently he had done that already. Oddly satisfied, he listened as Rin was asking the childish questions, one of them if Mai knew a decent youkai. Sesshomaru smirked – it was obvious, that he would be mentioned. After all the woman was under his constant protection and had a debt of gratitude towards him. He furrowed his brows, not hearing his name and gritted his teeth, when she said that he was the least decent demon except Naraku. How dare she be such ungrateful?

However, mentioning Naraku's name reminded Sesshomaru of a pressing issue, making him forget the woman's insolence. Sesshomaru's mortal enemy seemed to take liking in targeting Mai, as though he noticed, that she was the dog demon's weak point. Sesshomaru hesitantly admitted, that indeed she was a one and he could not do anything about it, at least till he kills Naraku. Until then he would have to protect her and in order to do it properly, she would have to be with him at all times, without any exceptions. Sesshomaru thought, that the woman would not take his decision well.



The tree of them were walking for some time in silence, following Sesshomaru and Ah-Un. Mai wondered, why all of sudden her companions became much less talkative than a while ago. Jaken had now a pleased grin plastered across his face and Rin looked depressed. Strange, usually it was the other way round. She was about to ask the kid, what was wrong, but she heard a deep voice calling her.

"Mai!" Sesshomaru called her. Oh shit! – Mai flinched at the sound of her name. If the demon called her like that, it usually meant that she was in deep shit. Or she will be, very soon. She ran to him, wondering what did he want from her. Recently she barely exchanged a word with her youkai boss, mainly because of the awkward situation.

Quickly she joined the demon and looked at him, searching his face for any sign of anger eruption, but there was none – he looked stoic as usual. She waited for him to say something.

"Woman," he began. Mai sighed with relief and waited for him to continue. "From now on, you are forbidden to leave my side. Ever."

The girl gawked at the demon. What the hell did that mean?!

"What? Ever?" she repeated. Sesshomaru didn't even spare her a glance.

"Yes."

Mai was staring at him, dumbfounded. The inu-youkai looked at her with a corner of the eye and decided, that the further explanation was needed.

"You must be protected from Naraku. I cannot do it if you are not with me." He said calmly and slowly, making sure that the idiot woman finally grasped the sense of his words.

Mai slowly nodded, understanding what that meant for her. The demon was kind of right – some nasty things tended to happen to her, when he was away and Naraku tried to get her three times already. Tagging along Sesshomaru was logically thinking the best idea, but the girl wasn't too eager to accept her fate. Come on, sentenced to being in his company without a break?! That would kill her! Lately she couldn't even look at his face without getting embarrassed – him seeing her naked and Kagura's silly words took its toll. Plus, if they were longer too close to each other, the arguments began and ended usually with him emphasizing his dominant position in ways, Mai didn't really like. Being stuck with the demonic asshole till Naraku is killed was like a death sentence for her. Never before Mai wanted that evil bastard Naraku dead so badly, as right now.
"It's a nightmare." She whispered.