Chapter 84

The unwanted company



"You want to travel in the night?!" Matsuko exclaimed, surprised and worried, when Sesshomaru decided to part ways after his demands to make the poor horse pull the cart till sunrise weren't met. "It's dangerous! Besides, Sesshomaru-san, you need to sleep too! You haven't even closed your eyes for a minute!"

Mai sighed, seeing, that Matsuko was apparently in her mother-mode and kept fussing. Knowing Sesshomaru, they would march all night. That's why the girl spent the last hours sleeping – it was best to be prepared.

"Matsuko is right. You should stay at least for the dinner. You two don't plan on starving themselves, do you?" Souichiro added.

Sesshomaru made an irritated face, but cast a quick glance at Mai. He decided, that she needed to be well-fed, as the journey was long and must have been exhausting for her frail human body.

"An hour." He decided.

Souichiro frowned, hearing the commanding tone, but said nothing and began freeing the horse from the cart. Chiyo helped him and Matsuko cooked a delicious stew over the campfire in no time. She distributed the bowls filled with hot meal to everyone. Even Sesshomaru took his, but didn't touch the food. Mai, on the other hand, chugged everything down almost instantly. She was monstrously hungry. Once she finished, the dog demon handed her his bowl.

"Eat it. You will need strength." He said. The girl took the bowl and flashed the gracious smile at him, before attacking his portion.

"Sesshomaru-san!" Matsuko scolded the inu-youkai. "You should eat. My, you will be skin and bones! It's not healthy!"

The woman already filled another bowl and tried to hand it to Sesshomaru. Mai swallowed, what she had in mouth, and decided to intervene.

"Leave him alone, Matsuko." She told the older woman. "He'll be fine."
Matsuko looked at her with disapproval.

"A wife must care about her husband's health Mai!" she said, pointing her finger at the girl, who just choke on the stew, her face turning red. It took a longer while for her to control the cough-attack.
Once she managed to swallow all the food safely, the girl heard the sound of the hooves. Souichiro's family turned towards the sound with mild interest and Sesshomaru reached to the hidden swords on his back.

"Captain Harada, old men are not suited to be shaken all day on the horseback." Everyone heard a voice, presumably one of a old man.

"Captain, I see a campfire!" a younger voice called. Mai furrowed her brows. Soldiers? Not good.
"All right, let's say hello." The one, who was called "captain" answered. The girl cursed under her nose. They're coming here!

Soon enough the owners of the voices showed themselves, as they came closer to the campfire. All of them dismounted, two of the samurais helping an old man with a long beards crawl off his horse. The one, who seemed to be the leader, lightly jumped off his steed and confidently made his way to the group by the campfire. Mai counted about twenty men plus the old man. If there would be problems, Sesshomaru would have difficulty defeating all of them, even though his skills were surely superior.

"Good evening, travelers." The soldier's leader said with a smile. "I'm captain Harada. May I see your passes?"

Souichiro and Sesshomaru handed him the papers without a word. The captain furrowed his brows, reading the documents carefully and examining the seal.

The leader of samurai's was a handsome tall man in his late twenties or perhaps early thirties, it was hard to tell only by his appearance. His long hair were casually tied in a loose ponytail instead of a popular topknot. The captain wore a light armor, the same as the rest of the soldiers.

Finally, Harada returned the passes, his gaze lingering for a while on Sesshomaru.

"Everything seems to be in order." He said formally. "Would you mind if we joined you?"

"You're welcome." Souichiro mumbled, not being in position to say no to a soldier. The captain nodded and motioned his men to come closer.

"Master Sekiguchi! Come closer to the fire!" he called to the old man, who eagerly rushed to the campfire and sat down between Mai and Matsuko.

"So nice." He said with pure bliss on his face, as he was warming his hands by the fire. "Everyone, I am called Sekiguchi Morinobu. It is an honor to meet you."

The company of soldiers proved to be troublesome – Mai and Sesshomaru couldn't leave without raising any suspicions and the old Sekiguchi talked without a break. Within next fifteen minutes he made everyone introduce themselves and even had time to embarrass Mai by offering his most sincere congratulations. The girl learned also, that the old man was a scholar, who was on his way to accompany his pupil on the journey to the far province of Hizen and captain Harada along with his men was escorting the scholar to haven. To make the matters worse, the soldiers were horribly noisy, talking among themselves and laughing. Matsuko embraced her adolescent daughter Chiyo tighter and was sending the samurais distrustful looks. Master Sekiguchi chose his peer Souichiro for the partner in conversation, while Mai and her demonic boss were sitting still as statues, thinking of a way to escape the uncomfortable situation. The girl noticed, that captain Harada was glancing at Sesshomaru from time to time, obviously thinking of him as of some suspicious element.

After the old man managed to eat the rest of Matsuko's stew, the captain ordered the soldiers to prepare to leave. Mai discreetly let out a relieved breath. Finally they were leaving.

"You better come with us. We'll escort you safely to the capital." Harada said to Souichiro. "The road to Kanazawa is dangerous, especially at night. The guerilla from Echizen is targeting Kaga's citizens. They can slaughter you in your sleep before you know it."

The old man furrowed his brows, not being completely convinced to the idea.

"My horse is too tired to pull a cart." He said. Harada waved his hand.

"We have spare steeds to lend. There'll be no problem with that." He retorted immediately. Souichiro nodded.

"Souichiro," Matsuko came closer to the old man and looked at him with fear in his eyes. "Maybe we should go with the soldiers. It will be safer for Chiyo and Mai."

Before Souichiro had the chance to answer, the soldiers were already harnessing a horse to his cart. Harada checked his sword for cracks and extinguished the campfire.

"All right, get on the cart. You too, master Sekiguchi. We're moving out." The captain commanded and the samurai's made sure, that all travelers came with them.

Mai opened her mouth to protest, but Sesshomaru squeezed her shoulder and helped her get on the cart. The girl understood, that it was an uncomfortable and dangerous situation, but, all in all, they had it their way – they would get to the haven faster and had the soldiers to ensure safety.

The cart rocked in a monotonous rhythm, but Mai was not in the mood for napping. She sat close to Sesshomaru and prayed, that none of the soldiers would provoke him. Maybe the demon lacked his youkai powers, but his huge ego and temper were still intact. Unfortunately, her prayers were not heard.

Captain Harada kicked the sides of his horse and motioned the steed to walk side by side with the cart. The samurai seemed to take interest in Sesshomaru.

"You are called, Sesshomaru, am I wrong?" the captain tried to start a conversation. The dog demon sent him an icy-cold glare.

"You are not." He replied dryly and returned to ignoring the man. Harada furrowed his brows, obviously getting pissed at how he was just treated. Mai bit her lower lip, cursing Sesshomaru's wretched attitude. The captain didn't seem to get the message and was insistent.

"You were a mercenary? Why did you gave up on it?" Harada kept inquiring. The girl thought, that it looked like the soldier was rather interviewing a suspect than trying to chat. Sesshomaru didn't react to the question and kept treating the captain like air. However, feeling the man's gaze on himself, the youkai finally graced Harada with a glare and replied.

"It is none of your concern." He snapped coldly. The captain frowned at the rude answer. Apparently, Sesshomaru was testing the limits of his patience.

"You have balls to talk back to me like that." He muttered. The man looked like he was about to produce some witty remark, when something caught his attention. Mai's eyes followed his gaze – Harada was staring at the empty sleeve of Sesshomaru's kimono.

"I understand now." He said with a bitter smile and lifted his right hand, flexing the fingers. The girl noticed, that the last two were missing. "I lost only couple of fingers and handling the sword is already more difficult. I can only imagine, how much pain in the ass it would be with only one arm."

The dog demon narrowed his eyes at the man.

"Perhaps for you." Sesshomaru retorted immediately. Mai noticed, that Harada's hand wandered towards the hilt of his sword, as well as the demon's. She gulped. If she did nothing…

"Captain," she addressed Harada, trying to prevent the fight. She placed her palm on Sesshomaru's hand. "When will we reach Kanazawa?"

"Hmm…" the man muttered, calculating the distance in his mind. "We just passed Nanto village, so we'll be in capital at the sunrise."

"That's good." Mai answered, counting down the days till the deadline, set by the eremite Shomyo. There were only ten days left. Would she and Sesshomaru make in time?
The girl looked up and noticed a wide grin on the captain's face.

"In hurry to get married, Mai-chan?" he asked, as his smile was getting bigger. Mai instantly blushed, mentally cursing Sesshomaru for coming up with such an embarrassing lie.

"Not your business!" she snapped angrily, clenching her fists. However, her reaction only caused Harada's amusement to grow.

"You two surely make a good pair." He noticed and observed, as Mai's face was getting redder and Sesshomaru's eyes were almost sending death beams in his direction.

"Leave the poor people alone, captain!" the scholar Sekiguchi called to Harada, spoiling the soldier's fun. Harada frowned, parodying disappointment. The old man turned around and smiled with apology.

"I'm sorry for him, but the captain likes teasing people too much."

Sekiguchi sent a last warning look at Harada and took out a parchment. He narrowed his eyes, trying to make out tiny letters and glanced at Souichiro, who was sitting beside him, completely concentrated on leading the horse. Sighing, the old scholar addressed the group back in the cart.

"Excuse me, good people, my niece wrote a letter to me, but the characters are just too tiny for my old eyes. Could any of you read it for me?" he asked politely.

Sesshomaru was helpful as ever, just sitting in the corner of the cart and sending threatening looks in Harada's direction. Matsuko and her daughter were also sitting silent. Seeing, that no one offered their help, Mai felt obligated to do it.

"Sure." She said, taking the parchment from Sekiguchi. "All right. Dear uncle…"

The girl began reading the letter, while the scholar listened carefully with a smile full of fondness. The captain furrowed his brows, warily observing Mai. Sesshomaru followed Harada's gaze and narrowed his eyes.

"It is unwise to stare at this woman." He said quietly, obvious threat in his voice. Instantly, amused smile returned to the captain's face, the seriousness disappearing momentarily.

"Jealous?" he asked cheerfully, teasing Sesshomaru. It seemed, that the demon's anger only fueled Harada's good mood. The man scanned Mai up and down, before nodding with approval. "No wonder. She's quite a catch. It is rare to find a village girl, who can read so fluently. Now excuse me, chatting with you, Sesshomaru-san, was a nice distraction, but I have work to do."

Having said that, Harada kicked his horse's sides and galloped to the front of the column and began checking on his subordinates.

"Tch!" the inu-youkai muttered to himself. "What a troublesome man."

Mai continued reading the letter from Sekiguchi's niece, when she heard a characteristic whiz right beside her head. Before she had the chance to learn, what it was, she got pushed down by Sesshomaru. The girl let out an annoyed yelp, wanting to scold the demon for doing such thing, when she saw an arrow, stuck in the cart's side, exactly in the place, where she was sitting a moment ago.
Another whiz sounded in the dead silence of night. The inu-youkai ripped out his hidden sword and the blade danced at a great speed. Mai heard a metallic "clank", when Sesshomaru deflected another arrow with the blade.

For a short while everything and everyone went perfectly still and silent. Then, it came.