Chapter 20

A precious piece of information

“Jaken-sama! Look, what I’ve made for you!” exclaimed Rin, as she decorated Jaken with a garland made of daisies. The green imp sighed, resigned, not having enough strength to protest. Where was Mai, when you need her?

The woman was gone for hours now. At first, Sesshomaru and his group were waiting for her at the edge of the forest, but after two hours the tall demon ordered Jaken to set up a camp. Bored Rin was torturing the poor imp with her games and childish questions, as expected from an energetic girl at her age. Sesshomaru grew impatient with every passing hour.

How long did the idiotic woman need to buy some food? She may have been incompetent, but it was too much. He could smell a faint trace of her scent, mixed with the great number of scents of other humans, domesticated animals and other smells. And the worst of all was, that he smelled his hanyou half-brother as well. Sesshomaru would have found the woman and dragged her back long ago, but he was not in a mood for an encounter with Inuyasha today.

Sesshomaru turned his head toward the town, when he felt Mai’s scent closer to their camp. He sniffed the air. The idiot woman was not alone. Another humans were following her. Remembering, what happened the last time, when she was left alone, the demon decided to retrieve his servant, before she got violated or killed. He doubted, that he would regret her death, but Rin would miss her.

“Jaken.” He addressed the imp. Jaken turned his heat towards his master, the green demon looked stupid, decorated with daisies. “Wait for me here.”

Sesshomaru set off to the source of Mai’s scent, gliding above the ground, looking for his new servant.

He spotted her almost immediately. Lifting her kimono, she ran like crazy, the two young human males were obviously chasing her. The strange thing was, that they were loaded with packages, but Sesshomaru did not give it much thought. He picked up the speed to get to his troublesome companion faster.

The ground trembled, as the silver haired demon landed right between his foolish servant and her attackers. The boys fell to the ground, scattering the packages all over the ground. Their eyes widened in terror.

“Mononoke.” Whispered the younger one, trying to crawl away from Sesshomaru.

The silver-haired demon glanced emotionlessly at two trembling figures and flexed his fingers. He outstretched his arm, preparing to attack, when he felt someone gripping his arm and trying to immobilize it. He turned his head to see the obstacle. The idiot woman had her arms around his, preventing him from attacking. Irritated Sesshomaru jerked his hand to shake her off, sending the woman to the ground. She let out a whimper, as she fell on her bottom. 

He turned his attention to the boys, who were still crouching on the ground, paralyzed with fear. He was about to use his lightning whip, when Mai darted and got herself between him and his prey. She outstretched her hands, protecting the human males for some reason, unknown to Sesshomaru.

“Don’t touch them!” she screamed to him, the look of determination on her face. The demon narrowed his eyes.

“Move out of my way.” He said calmly, but the woman did not budge.

 

“I won’t.” she said stubbornly and turned to the boys. “Idiots! Run!”

The boys obeyed her immediately and darted towards the town. Sesshomaru made an irritated sound, as he decided, that pursuing them would be pointless.

He looked at the idiot woman, who was still eying him suspiciously, as if she expected, that he would chase the two humans. The demon noticed, that his servant looked different than before. Now she wore a womanly pink silk kimono, which was of the best quality and brought out her figure nicely. 

Her hair was shorter, but tidier. She had make-up applied, what made her seem prettier, for a human. Especially the coral lipstick drew his attention to her lips.

“Sesshomaru!” the woman’s shrieking voice interrupted his thoughts. She straightened, trying to intimidate him with her small figure. “Why did you do that? Those boys were helping me! I would never be able to carry all this by myself!”

The demon glared at her, irritated, but the foolish woman was already gathering the packages, not paying any attention to him. Sesshomaru wondered, why would she need all those things. He watched, as she struggled to lift all her belonging, without success. He stalked to her and grabbed the largest bag and obviously the heaviest. He lifted it, as if it weighed nothing, gaining Mai’s amazed look. The woman took the rest and followed Sesshomaru, as he started walking away.

Mai was nearly running, trying to keep up with Sesshomaru. However, with her shorter legs she was at a disadvantage. After a longer while of silence, the demon spoke up.

“What took you so long?” he snapped at Mai. The girl looked at him and smiled innocently.

“I was busy. And I have a present for you.” She said with even bigger smile, obviously pleased with herself.

Sesshomaru snorted. What could the pathetic human have, that he could make use of? The demon was already angry, that she wasted so much of his time already.

“I do not need anything from you.” He said and noticed with a corner of his eye, that the foolish woman pouted.

“If you don’t want to hear, what I found out about Naraku, it’s fine with me.” She said proudly.

Sesshomaru stopped abruptly and pierced the woman with his glare. Mai didn’t slow down. He continued walking, completely ignoring him. The demon growled and approached her, appearing in front of her, blocking her way.

“Woman.” Sesshomaru said, warning in his voice, as he sent Mai his intimidating glare. The woman looked back at him.

“Woman won’t tell you a thing about Naraku.” She said stubbornly, placing her hands on the hips. “However Mai could.”

Sesshomaru made a step closer to her and smirked with satisfaction, when he noticed her fear, as she made a step back. He closed the distance between again, cornering her. The woman made another step from him and shrieked, as she tripped and fell back. She landed on her bottom with a loud thud. The demon thought, that taunting her amused him. She glared back at him, her eyes sparkling with anger.

“Now I’ll tell you nothing!” she screamed and got on her feet, straightening her new kimono.

Sesshomaru dropped the bag, he was holding and grabbed her shoulder, careful, not to pierce the fabric. The woman tried to free herself, but he didn’t release her. He pulled her to him and brought his face closer to hers, leaning over her. The startled woman opened her eyes wider and stared at him.

“If you are wise, you will tell me now.” He said quietly, letting her feel his breath on her cheek.

He noticed with satisfaction, that the human was now terrified. Her face paled and the lips were trembling slightly. 

“Naraku’s youkai were seen heading south, in the direction of Hanemasa.” The girl told him quickly.

Sesshomaru pulled himself from her and released her from his grip. He grabbed the bag and turned away. Before setting off, he looked at the woman over the shoulder.

“Come, Mai.” He said.

.

Later that day, elsewhere

.

“SHIPPO!” Inuyasha yelled chasing after the little fox demon, who just stole his bowl of rice. The kid was running as fast as he could, but the hanyou got him and punched right in the top of his head.

“Kagome!” wailed Shippo, clutching his head with his little hands. “Inuyasha hits me!”

The schoolgirl lifted her gaze from math textbook and sighed.

“Inuyasha.” She said, warning in her voice. The hanyou froze, seeing what was coming. “Osuwari.”

Inuyasha landed on the floor with a loud “thud” and the whole group sighed heavily and shook their heads with.

“He started!” Inuyasha tried to argue, but the look in Kagome’s eyes made him to shut up. Luckily, the girl turned her attention from him elsewhere.

“Miroku, you’re the best for finding us the place for the night!” she praised the monk. 

This time too, as expected, Miroku found a house, that belonged to the wealthiest man in the town and offered to exorcise a spirit. After the fake exorcism, they were able to enjoy all the luxuries. Kagome felt, that she really needed that after couple of night spent under the sky. She smiled with content and returned to memorizing the equations.

The rest of the group was still eating. The demon slayer Sango looked at Miroku, who was deep in thought.

“Is there something wrong, houshi?” she asked with worry on her face. Miroku shook his head.

“Everything is fine, Sango. I was just thinking about a woman, I met today.” He answered and yelped as he saw Sango’s murderous glare.

“Houshi-sama…” the girl started, emitting an aura of terror. 

“It’s not what you think, Sango!” the monk began explaining himself. “She asked me and Shippo about Naraku!”

Sango calmed down. Kagome lifted her head and even Inuyasha looked at Miroku, suddenly interested.

“She was suspicious.” Stated Shippo, gaining the attention of the group. “She told us, that she worked for the man, who was looking for Naraku.”

“Eh?” asked surprised hanyou. “A woman?”

“Yes…” said Miroku, smiling lecherously. Kagome and Sango sent him poisonous looks and Shippo sighed.

“What a pervert.” Commented the little fox demon, as he folded his arms and furrowed his brows. 

“That woman was dressed like a princess, so who did she work for?”

“Feh! Who cares?” Inuyasha spoke up, taking another serving of rice. “If they are looking for Naraku, we’ll meet them eventually.”