InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Truth About Cats and Dogs ❯ Sesshomaru's Concession ( Chapter 12 )

A/N: For those who care, this is the chapter relating to the piece of fan-art I posted called “You WILL”.

 

Recap: Kirara's matchmaking appeared to work for Kagome and Inuyasha, and the group were advised by a priestess that there were three demons nearby, one of whom was Kagura. However, the other two turned out to be Sesshomaru and Jaken. Sesshomaru ordered Kirara to follow him, and the two left alone.

 

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Chapter 12 - Sesshomaru's Concession

 

Kirara stopped, tilting her chin upwards defiantly.

 

`Trust this pompous dog to pick such a hazardous location for a battle,' she thought to herself.

 

Sesshomaru had led her out of the forest and onto a ledge, overlooking a valley from a dizzying height. The wind swirled around their legs, sweeping Sesshomaru's impossibly long silver hair to one side. Kirara momentarily allowed herself to admit that, for that brief moment, he did look very regal and noble; but, she quickly reminded herself, appearances could be very deceiving, and, in this instance, it was nothing more than an illusion.

 

“You can be in no doubt as to why I have brought you here alone,” he said, his voice as smooth, emotionless and calm as ever.

 

“Indeed,” Kirara agreed, her hand hovering over the hilt of her sword.

 

Her sword; the sword Totosai had made for her, that she had yet to test in battle. Of course, it would be useless against the might of Sesshomaru's Tokijin, but what other choice did she have?

 

Kirara smiled bitterly as she thought back to the night she had collected the sword from Totosai, the very same night that she had so foolishly challenged the demon lord to a battle, one which she had fled from like a common coward, a true disgrace to her own race. If Sesshomaru did kill her, it was no more than she deserved for such a display of cowardice, she decided.

 

“I have not forgotten what transpired the night I happened upon you by Master Totosai's abode,” Sesshomaru said.

 

“Nor have I,” Kirara replied, her hand falling away from her weapon.

 

“Your countenance, your brash language and your entire demeanour have haunted me in ways that I cannot even begin to describe,” Sesshomaru continued. “And I have also not forgotten the accusations you placed upon me when I found you trying to kidnap my ward and my dragon.”

 

“I wasn't trying to kidnap anyone,” Kirara defended herself quietly. “On that point at least I am innocent, Lord Sesshomaru. I merely saw a young human girl on her own, and an injured demon, both of whom I believed to be in need of my assistance.”

 

“And your desire to please and aid those weaker than yourself has also not failed to escape my notice either,” Sesshomaru added.

 

“Yes, you have made that much evident already.”

 

Kirara watched the back of Sesshomaru's head, silently willing him to just turn around and attack her already. Talking about it and anxiously awaiting the inevitable was only making her more nervous.

 

“And so now you are to play a game with me.”

 

Kirara slowly narrowed her eyes, her breath catching in her chest as every muscle in her body seized up. What did he mean?

 

“I see,” he continued. “You are perhaps not so different from other females as I had previously thought you to be.”

 

Kirara let out a shuddering gasp as her muscles began to ache, her body releasing the air that had been burning in her lungs.

 

“I do not appreciate this insolence.”

 

Kirara pulled a face at Sesshomaru unsure if she had missed something he may have said earlier. He appeared to think that she was offending him somehow. Had he already asked her to draw her weapon? Was he letting her attack his back? Where was the honour in that?

 

“You have toyed with me quite long enough,” Sesshomaru said sharply, his sudden change in tone scaring Kirara far more than even the thought of fighting him in his full demon form did. “You will toy with me no longer. You will be my mate.”

 

“Wha-huh?” Kirara blurted, clasping a hand to her chest as her heart leapt in shock.

 

Had she heard him correctly? The last part of what he had said, had she definitely heard right?

 

“Lord Sesshomaru…” she said slowly. “Did you just ask me to…”

 

“It was not a request, it was an order,” Sesshomaru replied, his voice once more back to its usual cold, flat tone. “And I will not repeat myself.”

 

Kirara found that she was once more forgetting to breathe again as she fought desperately to make her mind focus on what was happening. The only coherent thought that she could string together was that this was some sort of strange dream, or that Shippo had disguised himself as Sesshomaru to play a stupid trick on her; otherwise, why else would the lord of the dog demons be asking her, a cat demon, to be his mate?

 

“Of course, I suffered greatly,” Sesshomaru continued after a short silence. “I have warred within myself. I am not pleased to be taking a cat demon as my mate, least of all one whose circumstances in life are so decidedly below my own. I was, at first, disgusted with myself. But with the correct training and discipline, I believe that I can douse the flame of that feisty attitude that you possess. In my hands, I believe that you could be trained to be civil, to act like a lady, and to only talk when you have your lord's permission. In fact, I quite relish the challenge you present to me.”

 

Kirara awoke from her reverie, her face twisting into a scowl. This sounded more like the Sesshomaru that she knew.

 

“And if I am to refuse?” she asked boldly.

 

“You cannot refuse,” Sesshomaru plainly replied.

 

“I just did,” Kirara replied, smirking to herself as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I would sooner die by your hand than be your mate.”

 

“You will!” Sesshomaru growled, spinning around to face her at last.

 

Kirara started in alarm as she saw Sesshomaru's eyes glowing red at her. She gulped again, straightening her back as she tried to maintain her dignity.

 

“You will be mine!” he snarled.

 

“I will not,” she said, her voice quiet yet determined.

 

“You will, or I will remove your head from your shoulders, fire-cat!” Sesshomaru snarled, stepping closer to her.

 

“Maybe so,” Kirara confidently replied. “But you will not take me without a fight.”

 

To Kirara's amazement, her words made the redness fade from Sesshomaru's eyes.

 

“Another game,” he mused quietly, looking down the length of his nose at her. “I am no fool. I know it is secretly the way of females to refuse the one they truly wish to accept, in some vain attempt to appear alluring and more feminine. You need not play such childish, pointless games with me. You have already expressed a desire to be with me, I do not need to hear your word upon the matter now.”

 

Kirara faltered again, her mind screaming as she once more found she was confused by his words, as if she had missed a small part of something he was saying.

 

“Are you referring to the time I asked you if you would take me as your “wife” in order to please Rin?” Kirara asked, her brain desperately grabbing onto the one clear and logical idea it could find in the haze of confusion around her.

 

“Why else would you make such a bold statement if not as a means to convey your deep-seated desire to be my mate?” Sesshomaru responded.

 

`Ah,' Kirara thought to herself. `We've been here before. He's trying to turn my words against me again. Jackass.'

 

“That was not what I meant at all,” Kirara carefully replied. “Had I known that my words would be taken in such a way, I should never have dared voice them.”

 

“And yet you did,” Sesshomaru quickly retorted. “And I saw you look back both times that you left me.”

 

“What?” Kirara echoed feeling even more lost than before.

 

“The night you challenged me to a duel and then fled,” he explained. “You stopped and looked back at me. And the morning you left me by the edge of the forest, you stopped and looked back at me again. You wanted me to chase you. A very coy tactic indeed.”

 

Kirara cringed as she felt her face burn at his words. She had been unable to rest for her concern that he viewed her running away from him as the actions of a coward, but to learn that he saw it as her merely flirting with him, trying to seduce him even, quickly changed her worry into shame.

 

“My Lord, I fear you are very much mistaken,” she began. “I was merely-”

 

“I am never wrong,” Sesshomaru interrupted her. “You have demonstrated time and time again that you desire to have me for your mate. Do not disrespect me so now by denying that it was your intention to lure me in with your wicked feminine charms and graces, so expertly used as to make me forget who I am and what I owe to my family name and the throne of the Western Lands.”

 

“If I truly am so repulsive to you, why do you still wish to take me for your mate?” Kirara haughtily returned. “If you wish to be “lured by wicked feminine charms and graces”, there are plenty of lowly female demons who would gladly stand by your side as your mate and obey your ever word. I am not one of those females, Lord Sesshomaru, and I deeply resent the accusation that I am such.”

 

“Your words may be those of a defiant female demon posing as a warrior of some sorts, but your body betrays your every word.”

 

Kirara paled as Sesshomaru took another step closer to her, lifting his head ever so slightly, his nose making the smallest of motions as he inhaled her scent.

 

“How dare you?” Kirara growled. “I am not “posing” as anything! I am a warrior! And my body betrays nothing but the burning hatred I feel towards you!”

 

“On the contrary,” Sesshomaru replied, his eyes narrowing slightly as he spoke. “I have observed that the closer I move to you, the more you go out of your way to accentuate the alluring curves of your body.”

 

“I do no such thing!” Kirara snapped, her face flushing again as the insinuation made her suddenly very conscious of her newly regained human body.

 

Sesshomaru took a step closer to Kirara, who instinctively lifted her chin further in the air, moving her shoulders back and moving a hand to one hip. Sesshomaru's eyebrows inched upwards, and Kirara suddenly realised exactly what he had been talking about. Mewing indignantly, she spun around, facing away from him as she reeled inwardly from shock and horror.

 

“The view is equally as appealing from this angle,” Sesshomaru quietly said.

 

Although his voice was as monotonous and void of emotion as ever, his words defiled her far more than even a grope from Miroku could ever have done.

 

“I do not wish to be your mate, Lord Sesshomaru,” Kirara said stubbornly, turning her head to look over her shoulder at him. “Not now, and not ever. You have insulted me by every possible means, and I must now take my leave of you. I can only hope that we never cross paths again.”

 

“And this is to be your final word upon the matter?” Sesshomaru asked.

 

Kirara opened her mouth to reply, but then decided against it. She refused to give him any more words that he could use as weapons against her in their next encounter, stabbing them into her back and twisting them to suit his own delights. Without a backward glance - since such a thing would only give the impression that she wanted to bond with the demon lord - Kirara marched off back in the direction of her friends.

 

“Hateful, hateful man!” she growled under her breath as she stormed back into the forest. “Arrogant, contemptuous, presumptuous, condescending, self-righteous, pompous, narcissistic jackass!”

 

Kirara ignored the mixture of relieved and surprised expressions her friends greeted her with as she approached them, her eyes locking instead onto the small, green, slimy little toad that stood between her and her friends, scowling at her disdainfully.

 

“It will give me no pleasure to serve you,” he sneered as she drew near.

 

“Then perhaps it will give you immense pleasure to learn that you shall never have that task,” Kirara spat back.

 

“You…” Jaken began, his eyes widening out of their contemptuous sneer. “You refused my master?”

 

Kirara glanced nervously over at her friends, praying that the alert ears of her demon and half-demon companions had not heard the toad imp's words.

 

“What a relief for you,” Kirara growled, turning back to Jaken. “For he is all yours once more!”

 

“Hey!” Jaken screamed as Kirara yanked his staff out of his hands.

 

Kirara spun the staff over the fingers of one hand, catching it to hold it upside-down. She then grasped it with her other hand, swinging it back over one shoulder before spinning around, using the momentum of her body and arms to whack Jaken with his own treasured weapon, sending him flying into the air.

 

Kirara then tried to break the staff in half with both hands, even bending up one leg and hitting it off her thigh in an attempt to weaken it. When she failed to so much as put a splinter in the ancient staff, Kirara threw it like a spear, aiming it in the same direction Jaken's body had disappeared in.

 

Sango took one step towards Kirara, her foot making sticky, squelching noises as she lifted it from the soggy forest floor and placed it down again. At the sound of the motion, Kirara turned her head sharply towards her friends, her fangs and claws bared and her eyes red.

 

“Did you just kill my brother?” Inuyasha asked, pointing at Kirara with his Tetsusaiga as he spoke.

 

“Put your weapon away, you fool!” Kirara hissed in response.

 

“Hey, don't get angry with me, stupid!” Inuyasha barked back. “I just wanted to know what you did to him, that's all!”

 

Kirara let out a short, sharp growl, before marching towards the group and heading straight past them and continuing on back in the direction they had just come.

 

“What's up with your cat, Sango?” Inuyasha asked, slipping the Tetsusaiga back into its sheath as he addressed Sango.

 

“I don't know,” Sango said, frowning in concern. “But I should really go after her and tell her she's going the wrong way. She won't know that we've detected a shard of the jewel yet.”

 

“Well hurry up!” Inuyasha yelled after her as she ran after her friend.

 

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“Master Jaken, why were you flying?” Rin asked, tilting her head to one side curiously as she eyed Jaken over.

 

“Stop with your incessant questions, girl!” Jaken moaned, touching one hand to the tender part of his stomach where the two heads of his own staff had whacked into him. “I tried to warn my master that women are nothing but trouble, but did he listen?” he added under his breath.

 

“I didn't know you could fly, Master Jaken,” Rin continued, oblivious to Jaken's ill temper. “Your staff hit Ah and Un's tail. It was lucky Kirara helped Ah and Un get better, or else I wouldn't have been able to save your staff for you.”

 

Jaken sighed, silently noting that Rin would also have not been able to save him as he arced in the air and began his freefall descent towards the ground.

 

“Can we return to Lord Sesshomaru now?” Rin asked.

 

“Yes,” Jaken replied. “This way.”

 

Rin turned around to face Ah-Un's heads, taking hold of its reins to guide it back in the direction Jaken had indicated. They flew back over the trees towards an open ledge by the forest's edge that over-looked a large, open valley. Jaken, being more sensitive to demonic auras and his master's moods, stiffened as Ah-Un began to descend towards Sesshomaru, who was standing with his back turned to them, his one hand raised up by his shoulder.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru!” Rin cried, leaping off of Ah-Un before it had fully landed.

 

Sesshomaru spun around to face them, the sight of his condition causing Jaken to yelp. Rin paused, frowning up at him in confusion. His eyes were red, his mouth was wide, exposing his fangs, and his hand was glowing green, his claws dripping with something that was burning and killing the grass by his feet.

 

“We will await you back at the castle, Milord,” Jaken hurriedly said, reaching a hand down to grab Rin by the collar of her kimono and drag her back.

 

Rin stumbled back, her eyes still locked on Sesshomaru.

 

“Master Jaken, what has happened to Lord Sesshomaru?” she asked as she climbed back up onto Ah-Un's back.

 

“You've made him angry, girl,” Jaken quietly replied, passing Ah-Un's reins to her.

 

“I did?”

 

Jaken groaned, slapping a hand against Ah-Un's flank to make it leap up into the air once more.

 

“I should apologise to Lord Sesshomaru, Master Jaken,” Rin said softly as they flew off over the valley.

 

“No, you'll only make him more angry,” Jaken replied, glancing over his shoulder to watch as Sesshomaru swiped his hand at a tree, snapping it in two, the poison from his claws reducing it to ash before it even hit the ground. “Although I have never seen him this angry before…”

 

“What did I do to make Lord Sesshomaru so angry?” Rin asked, tears forming in her eyes.

 

“You're a girl,” Jaken replied, poking her in the back with one bony finger. “Lord Sesshomaru doesn't like girls!”

 

“Oh,” Rin said quietly. “Is that why he doesn't like Kirara?”

 

“Yes,” Jaken said, nodding his head and grinning slyly. “Lord Sesshomaru hates Kirara…”

 

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Next Chapter: After her unexpected encounter with Sesshomaru, Kirara is more short-tempered than usual. But can the gang use her newfound energy to help them recover the jewel shard they have traced? Chapter 13 - Kirara's Rage.