Chapter 69

I will not let you die



"There is no use, this is not a normal barrier." Sesshomaru said. "It is a seal."

Mai furrowed her brows.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Can't you just blast it with Souryuuha or something like that?"

The demon sent her an irritated glare.

"It is a seal. A demon cannot break it." He said slowly, as though taking her for an idiot.

"Even as powerful as you?" Mai made sure. As a response she got an icy-cold glare. She supposed, that it was a positive answer. If Sesshomaru admitted, that he couldn't do anything about it, they were screwed. A seal… She heard from Kagome once, that Inuyasha was sealed by Kikyo's arrow for fifty years, but Kagome somehow freed him. Therefore there must be a way. Mai clenched her fist, trying to think positively.

"Sesshomaru, do you know by the chance how to break the seal?" she asked the demon.

"Yes." He said. Mai's eyes brightened. Great! So there was hope! And she was beginning to worry, that she would be stuck here.

"So… how?" she urged him to tell her. Sesshomaru sent her an annoyed look.

"It can be broken by a human, who possesses spiritual powers."

Mai gawked at the youkai.

"Spiritual powers… like a monk or miko?" she made sure. The demon nodded and sat down.

Mai felt, that she was beginning to panic. What were the odds that some miko would come by, to this god forsaken place, and lift the damn seal? She knew the answer – one in a million. She realized, that, not being able to get out of here, she would soon die of starvation, a long death... To make the matters worse, she was stuck with the bastard Sesshomaru, who would most probably watch her dying with a sickening smirk on his lips, happy because of a human's torments.

To make the matters worse, Sesshomaru was his usual asshole self. The demon looked at her, arching his eyebrow.

"You do not happen to possess any spiritual powers, do you?" he asked in a voice, Mai took as mocking. She glared at him.

"Sorry, but I don't. I'm such a useless tool." She said, folding her arms and giving Sesshomaru a challenging look. The demon refused to even look at her.

"Stop being foolish." He said. Mai felt fury boiling the blood in her veins and just snapped.
"Foolish, me? It's your fault, that we're stuck here, you idiot! Why the hell did you drag me here?!" she began. "Now I'm stuck with you till I die! I hate you!"

Sesshomaru came closer at her and glared at her warningly, but Mai ignored it and continued shouting insults at him, letting all her accumulated anger out.

"Woman, enough." The demon hissed. The girl placed her hands on the hips. This time she wouldn't let him order her around, not that she had now anything to lose anyway. She lifted her head and gave the demon bastard her best poisonous glare.

"You're the worst man, that ever walked on the face of Earth, worse than Naraku!" she screamed into his face.

At the comparison to Naraku, Sesshomaru snapped. How dare she think of him so lowly? The demon snatched her arm and violently pulled her towards himself. He leaned over her, wanting to intimidate the foolish woman, so that she would finally stop.

"I said, enough." He said, barely keeping his voice calm. The woman had a natural gift of making him lose control. He glared at her, but she bravely looked back, not willing to avert the gaze first. Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. "This Sesshomaru will not let be insulted by a human."

Mai got even more angry by the last remark. She ignored the pain in her arm, as the demon's fingers were gripping her way too strong.

"And I will not let be ordered around by a monster." She hissed.

Sesshomaru growled at her with anger, showing his fangs. She called him a monster again! He unknowingly clenched his fingers around her arm tighter. The woman kept glaring at him, not showing any sign, that she was about to yield. Then, he picked up the scent of her blood and released her from his grip immediately. Sesshomaru cursed himself for losing himself in his anger and hurting her again. The woman was stubborn, but fragile as well.

"I forget how weak humans are." he muttered, meaning it to be an apology for Mai. However, his words had an opposite effect. She clutched her injured arm and sent him a cold look.

"Oh, right. We humans are weak and useless, so you hate us. I know that already." She said. "But don't you worry, Sesshomaru. Thanks to you I'm going to die here soon. Happy with yourself?"
Sesshomaru reached and grabbed her by her obi. He pulled herself to him and made her face him.
"I will not let you die." He declared, but it didn't lessen Mai's anger.

"Why would you do that? I'm a human, after all, and you despise my kind!" she said in a raised tone, dangerously close to shrieking.

The demon furrowed his brows at her reply. Why was she so difficult to handle?

"I do not despise you." He said quietly.

The silence fell, until Mai broke it finally.

"You don't?" she asked.

Sesshomaru's eyes widened at the realization, that he has said it loud – he never meant to tell the woman such a shameless thing. He quickly released her obi and turned around.

"Sesshomaru?" he heard Mai's nagging voice. "So do you hate humans or not? Which is it?"

"I do hate humans." He replied after a while. Mai walked around him, so that she was facing him now. The demon refused to look into her eye, but noticed her red face and another irritating tirade coming – he did not want her insult him again.

"You are an exception." He said quickly. "You and Rin."

Sesshomaru kept staring at the ceiling, avoiding Mai's gaze. He was ashamed, that she made him admit it.

Mai gawked at the demon, who suddenly found the cave's ceiling particularly interesting. To hear him saying such things was… unexpected at least, not to mention weird. Especially when he was behaving like now – Mai decided, that this is how embarrassed Sesshomaru looked like. Somehow, she couldn't stay angry at him anymore, he did show some regret for his earlier actions, after all. She would want him to apologize properly, but she was sure, that the demon would rather die than do it, so making him say what he just told her was a huge progress already. Maybe there was still a chance to work things out. She sighed heavily. Sesshomaru was so difficult to handle…

"Sesshomaru, the things I said about you earlier, I didn't mean them. I don't hate you." She said.

"Hn." Sesshomaru still refused to look at her. Mai rolled her eyes. Stubborn idiot!

"What are we going to do now, being sealed here and everything?" she asked. The quarrel with the demon distracted her a bit, but the seriousness of their situation began to resurface.

"Jaken will find me eventually, as he always does." Sesshomaru said.

"So we just have to hold on, till he gets here?" Mai made sure. The demon ignored her, but she took it as a positive reply.

"Good." She muttered and an awkward silence fell.

Then Mai's stomach rumbled. She laughed sheepishly and put her arms around it, embarrassed by the loud sound it made.

Sesshomaru abruptly turned his attention from the ceiling from the woman. Her body was giving signs of hunger already, while they may stay sealed in the cave for days or even weeks. Mai would not survive that long without nourishment.

"Stay here." The demon said sharply and leapt into the darkness of the cave.

"Wai…" Mai began, but he was already gone, leaving her alone at the exit. She sat down and pulled her knees to the chest, gazing at the stars on the night sky. It sucked to be imprisoned here by some invisible barrier. How long would it take before someone would free them? The girl shivered slightly – the nights were getting colder now and she regretted not having put an extra layer of kimono this morning.

Soon Sesshomaru returned. Mai squinted her eyes – the demon was dragging something behind himself. The girl flinched when she saw what it was. The dog demon was carrying a dead snake-like youkai, about three meters long. Sesshomaru approached sitting Mai and dumped the carcass before her. Mai looked questioningly at the dog demon, unsure what was happening.

"You need to eat." Sesshomaru stated firmly. The girl looked at the dead youkai and flinched in disgust.

"You expect me to eat THAT? No way!" she told him.

"You need your strength or else you will die." Sesshomaru insisted. He crouched beside the carcass and dug his claws in, carving a rectangle. The demon tore the scaled skin off, exposing the flesh of dead youkai and cut out a smaller bite-sized piece, handing it to Mai. "Eat it."

Mai backed off, leaning her back against the cave wall, staring at the scene with disgust. She shook her head, not eager to eat raw flesh of the youkai.

"I won't." she insisted. Sesshomaru glared at her.

"Do you want to starve yourself? Eat it!" he said in a raised tone, indicating that he was losing his patience.

"No, it's disgusting." She said, turning her head away, not wanting to look at the carcass.
Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes, displeased by the fact, that Mai refused to eat, even though he brought her the food. He had to persuade her to eat if he wanted to keep her alive.

"Hn." He sat down beside her, studying the piece of meat. "It is not surprising, that a human like you will be scared to eat it."

Mai looked sharply at him.

"What was that supposed to mean?" she hissed. The demon looked at her.

"Humans are fit to be rather a prey than hunters, after all." Sesshomaru said in a mocking tone.

"It's not true, you bastard!" she exclaimed, her eyes flaring with anger. He smirked.

"You cannot bring yourself to prove it." The demon replied, waving with the piece of raw meat in front of Mai's face. Mai narrowed her eyes.

"I can." She hissed. "Give me that!"

Mai snatched the piece of meat from his claws and with determination stuffed it into her mouth. She swallowed it nearly without chewing, controlling the urge to vomit. She wiped the blood of her lips and looked back at Sesshomaru triumphantly, only to see a self-satisfied smirk plastered across his face. That damn bastard!

"You tricked me!" she scolded him. The demon nodded, not even bothering to pretend it was otherwise. He stood up and grabbed the carcass of the youkai. With all his strength he threw it into the depths of the cave, getting rid of the useless thing. Then he sat beside Mai.

The girl was a little bit pissed on Sesshomaru for making her eat the carcass, but she guessed he meant good. After all she had seen worse things on the Discovery Channel. Now that the rumbling in her stomach stopped, she began to feel cold stronger. Without fire and something to cover with, the chilly air was unbearable. Mai put her arms around herself, to warm up a little, but it wasn't helping much. She was sleepy, but couldn't control the shivering.

"Are you cold, woman?" Sesshomaru asked abruptly.

"A bit." Mai admitted, chattering her teeth.

She looked at the night sky, when she heard a loud noise. Her attention turned to Sesshomaru. She widened her eyes, as she saw him removing his armor. What in earth was he doing? – she wondered. The girl felt a little uneasy, when the demon turned to her and looked at Mai like a predator at his prey. The inu-youkai abruptly pulled her towards himself and put his arm around her. His white fur wrapped around her frame, as though moving on its own.

"Sesshomaru!" she yelped, startled by his action. What the hell was going on?!

"Sleep." The demon commanded harshly, pressing Mai tightly against his chest.

The girl wanted to argue, but the white fur muffled her words. Struggling was also impossible, since Sesshomaru was holding her with his demonic strength and wouldn't even budge. Seeing no other choice, she tried to relax. The demon's body was pleasantly warm and the fur also helped her to fight the cold. Being so close to him was extremely embarrassing, but she quite liked it. After all, everything the youkai was doing, it was keeping her from freezing to death. Mai couldn't help but to wonder, why Sesshomaru was so insistent on taking care of her tonight. Perhaps even a demon like him could feel guilty for their previous argument. Either way, it was nice of him. The girl closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.