Angelus

Author's note: Thanks to all for reading my fantasies. Please leave a review!
--

Sesshomaru was brought out of his musings when the little Rin excited whispers reached his ears. He had let Kitana sleep on her rock when she finally gave him the answers he was seeking and joined the rest of his group underneath the protection of the rocky slab. The black creature, even if her outward appearance and her ill temper screamed of danger, had a softer core and carried a heavy burden. He was not about to trust her, but he knew that she would probably not try anything against his ward or himself and if she would, he could overpower her very easily. This certitude, combined with the strain brought by the total lack of sleep he endured since the day he brought Rin to the cocoon, brought his vigilance down. As the sun rose, he found his attention caught up by the first shimmers of light at the horizon. The manifestations of nature, be they as insignificant as a drop of water falling from a leaf at dawn, or the last rays of sun turning the horizon into a blazing work of art, had always fascinated him and brought him in a contemplative state.

Turning his eyes toward the source of the noise, he met a strange sight. His ward was very excited, but somehow she managed to keep almost silent, tiptoeing her way to him, her little body almost shivering in her efforts not to make any noise. She repeated her words and if he had not had an excellent hearing he might not have understood.

“Sesshomaru-sama! Please please follow Rin! You have to see that! You have to seeeeeeee!”

Respecting her evident efforts for silence, he asked her in a low whisper “See what, Rin?”

The child almost rolled her eyes. Her lord was making them loose some precious time and maybe they would miss the beautiful show.

“Please my lord! Just follow Rin!”

Amused he rose and silently followed in her foot steps. Seeing this boisterous child so bent not to make a noise was funny in a way, and he wondered what caused her to act that way. Probably a bunny with her babies, or a covey of quails eating in the meadow. For that was where they were heading: toward the small field sited beside the stream at the foot of the stony hill.

As they approached the meadow, the child unexpectedly headed for a line of trees and bushes, behind which he detected the presence of Jaken. The kappa was mesmerized by whatever he saw on the other side of the trees, his beak wide open. He did not even turn to acknowledge his master’s arrival. No fluffy bunny could have that kind of effect on the kappa, Sesshomaru thought.

Now curious, the taiyoukai looked at his ward, who was pointing wide-eyed toward something immobile in the clearing ahead.

“Look Sesshomaru-sama! She is dancing!”

The child then pushed some branches aside to improve her view of the scene while not giving her presence away, and returned her attention to whatever fascinated her, completely ignoring her lord.
Sesshomaru followed his ward and retainer’s gazes, trying to see beyond the branches and leaves that obscured his view what was so fascinating to them. When he finally saw, he did not understand Rin’s and Jaken’s excitation. For the creature that was standing in the clearing was none other than Kitana, and she was certainly not “dancing”: she was frozen in a fighting stance, her body completely still. A poor fighting stance at best, with her feet not enough wide apart, her eyes closed, and her thighs muscles clearly tiring from the prolonged effort. As he was about to end this farce, she moved.

Despite her physical weakness, Kitana managed to infuse some impression of power into her slow and fluid movements, reminding him of traditional martial arts. The sort of boring martial arts one used to meditate rather than fight. She extended and flexed her body alternatively, slowly turning from one side to the other with exaggerated movements of the arms. He couldn’t decide if she was supposed to be blocking or attacking; as Rin stated, the whole thing looked more like a dance than fighting arts.

Becoming rapidly bored by the display, the creature having done three full circles around the small field, he was about to turn tail and leave when she suddenly added a clear block to her routine. He cocked his head a little to the side, for the movement had been very well executed for a weak woman, and decided to wait and see if it was an accident or not. If it was, any attempt at training her was undoubtedly doomed or promised to be a long and tedious task. Really, even if she was nearly killed she fared much better than that under the attack of Kagura’s lower demons.

In the clearing, Kitana increased the pace of her movements and conducted a series of hard blocks on the air in front of her, always turning clockwise. Her eyes were still closed, and her furrowed brows gave away the intense concentration she was in. For whatever reason that Sesshomaru could not understand, this slow dance was demanding a high level of focus.

As her movements were becoming faster and stronger, a curious phenomenon happened. The taiyoukai first thought nothing of it, but when his ward suddenly held her breath his attention increased. At each of Kitana’s block, a small gust of wind seemed to prolong her movement. She used a fast swipe of her tail above the ground to send some dead leaves and flowers in the air around her, and each of her movement seemed to aim at keeping the vegetals in suspension in the center of the circle. She was not succeeding easily though, and once in a while everything fell back to the ground, but she could keep them floating for longer moments at a time.

So, she was a wind user, was she? And a poor one at that. He had seen better control from many infant youkai. Concentrated on the unusual display, the taiyoukai almost failed to notice that the water from the stream was also reacting to her movements. Kitana added sharp attacks to her dance now, a swift kick often following a block with her arms. As much as her blocks seemed to manipulate the air, her fluid attacks detached tiny droplets of water from the stream, sending them amongst the flowers and leaves. The way the water caught the morning light while it circled in the air in the center of the clearing was creating an otherworldly atmosphere. As Kitana once again lost control over the whirling elements and let them fall on the ground, he intervened.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked with a strong voice, his brows frowned aggressively.
Kitana snapped out of her trance to find that she had spectators. She was tired, as whatever she was doing was eating at her energy, and she did not find it amusing at all when she realized how vulnerable her little session left her, completely unaware of her surroundings. She answered sharply to Sesshomaru's inquiry.

“I am training, as you asked me to”. A brow disappeared in silver bangs.

“This, was not training, woman. This could not even be called dancing, and this Sesshomaru fails to see how dancing would help you fight off an encounter with Naraku. I highly doubt he would be as enthralled by your art as my ward and retainer seem to be”.

Kitana becoming more and more irritated by his know-it-all attitude. In the past she had been a respected warrior and no matter how weak she had become, it frustrated her to be considered a mere beginner, a wannabe with no skills. Who was he to act like that, she thought.

“Pardon me, “my lord”, but I was training. I cannot fight an enemy if I do not have control over my powers. I was trying to find the flow –“

“Find the flow?” he said in a bored tone. The explanation did not interest him in the slightest.

“Yes, find the flow.” His disdainful attitude fueled her anger. “The best way for me to use my powers in a fight is by channeling the energy of the world that surrounds me through my body, and transform it into attacks. However each world has its own flow of energy, a unique frequency and amplitude that I have to adapt to if I want to be able to use it. So far I have not succeeded, and all I can do is burn up my own energy in battle, which gives the results you saw in the battlefield.”

“Nonsense. You are not here to find whatever flow you are looking for, but to regain your physical strength. What good would it make to control leaves and flowers if your muscles are too weak to keep you standing straight, if your punches do as much harm as a strike from a kitten? Take your fighting stance now, we shall begin.”

“Why should I?” she asked defiantly, crossing her arms. “I’ve never been good at hand-to-hand combat. It’s not going to change in a fortnight just because you, Mighty Lord, decide so. It’s my powers I need to regain; physical strength will come back by itself with time.”

Sesshomaru didn’t give her any chance to insult him further and made his move, claw tips glowing with an unhealthy green. The energy whip caught Kitana totally unprepared, coiling around her right ankle and pulling it upward. The creature fell on her back ungracefully.

“Ouch! Hey, what’s your problem?”

Another whiplash caught her by surprise, slashing her left biceps and cutting right through her clothes and skin. A threatening hiss left her lips as the vile yellowish acid that ran underneath her skin found its way to the surface and dripped to the ground. An acrid smell filled the air when the burned grass and soil.

The third attack from Sesshomaru met with air. Kitana understood that he would not stop until she retaliated or at least tried to. Her right hand protecting her injury, she jumped back to the edge of the field and waited, not letting the taiyoukai out of her sight.

The wound was small, and her skin was soon covering it again. Kitana removed her hand from her biceps and shook away the remaining acid that clung to her fingers, looking bitterly to Sesshomaru. The droplets of liquid hit a tree beside her and with a sinister hiss started eating at the bark, then the wood.

The youkai was totally immobile, acting just as nothing had happened. His eyes trained on her form were the only detail that gave him away.

“Rin, Jaken. Leave us.”

Tiptoeing away from the scene, Jaken and Rin retreated to the camp, where they could safely observe whatever training was going on. And where Jaken could avoid being stepped on, kicked or harmed in any way. Rin did not like the way her lord angered her friend, but at the same time she was pleased that something made him react. Something else than an enemy. He was always lost in his thoughts, with no friend to talk to or to play with, and she was feeling bad for him. She knew he appreciated her antics and that kicking Jaken once in a while entertained him a little, but she was glad that now he had a purpose other than revenge over Naraku. She started humming to herself and gathered some flowers in an attempt at a crown for her weird new friend.

In the clearing, Kitana took this short time to morph her clothes into an armor not unlike the one she created against the army of youkai. Gone was the fancy suit, replaced by an elastic, hardened material that hugged her fragile body tightly. Her skin had to be protected against other tears, and her internal organs that were still mending couldn’t withstand a battle right away. The spears appeared on her arms and knees, and the edges of her tail and back spines became as cutting as a sword.

“I won’t fight you, Sesshomaru. This is not my style; it’s not what I need. I-”

Her ranting was cut short by the sudden apparition of the said youkai a few feet from her right side. Her widened eyes saw the slight frown on his brows before being shut down under a sharp pain. He used her distraction to slam his knee right in her abdomen, before retreating back at his former spot, leaving her breathless on the ground.

“Do not pretend to know what you do or don’t need. Prepare yourself, you are a pathetic opponent.”

The first attacks from Sesshomaru caught her totally by surprise. This guy was fast! Kitana had blatantly underestimated his strength, especially considering his lack of an arm, and she had been helpless at repelling his blows. At least the hit with the knee had been on her armor, not her regular clothes, and the incredible pressure of it had scattered throughout her whole body rather than concentrated on her abdomen, where it would have wrecked havoc. He wasn’t a talker, wouldn’t listen to what she wanted to say, so she did what her instincts pushed her to do. She rose on her feet and crouched low, her tail slashing around her and a hand on the ground.

That was what Sesshomaru was waiting for. One moment he was calmly waiting for her to collect herself, and the next he was right before her, striking at her from the front with his claws. She managed to duck the attack by jumping backward amongst the trees but it was only a fake one; the real strike came once again from his knee and caught her totally by surprise right in her left side. The brute force of the impact sent her flying four feet away and a tree stopped her course. Luckily for her, it was the same tree her acid had started to destroy moments earlier and it couldn’t withstand the pressure of the hit; with a thundering sound the noble vegetal lost its life and fell on the ground.

Kitana was beyond pain, bruises all over her body. Not only Sesshomaru was extremely fast, but his blows were overwhelming. However, she was a proud creature and couldn’t accept to be that easily humiliated. As soon as she hit the tree, she prepared to retaliate but when she turned her opponent was already gone, smirking at her in his irritating way from the other side of the clearing. She charged nonetheless, even though she knew it was hopeless: he saw her coming, dodged and punched her in the back, just like a cat playing with a mouse. Hissing, she tried another attack, which was countered as easily as the first one. Again, and again.

Kitana was not having a good time. She decided to wait for Sesshomaru’s attacks to block them and somehow counter-attack, but the taiyoukai was right: her body was too weak, her muscles too frail to be effective in battle. When she tried to outrun him, she found him right in front of her. When she tried to strike, her blows met with air. And when she wanted to dodge or block, she failed miserably and became airborne each and every time. Her frustration grew with her weariness, and soon she found herself exhausted, not able to react to Sesshomaru’s charges. Smirking disdainfully, he left her lying down in the now enlarged clearing when he saw that she clearly had learned her lesson.

--

Sesshomaru spent the remainder of the day standing atop the rocky ledge, his hairs and fur pelt moving gracefully along with the winds. To the onlooker, he could easily pass as a daydreamer, but in reality his keen sense of smell was put to the test as he sifted through the infinity of fragrances brought to him by the afternoon’s winds.

Naraku’s stench was what he was tirelessly searching for even though he now knew perfectly well that the hanyou he despised so much was in total control of that smell. Whenever he could get a glimpse of it, he knew it was only a lure used by his enemy to attract him. And into each trap he walked unfazed, for such a weak opponent posed no threat to him. Frowning, he recalled each and every time that the cursed monster survived their encounter only because of the protection of his barrier. Without it, he thought, Naraku would be long gone. But this scent was absent on that day, as well as any of the underlings that followed and obeyed the hanyou.

Lazily, his eyes left the horizon to descend on the beings gathered at the foot of the hill. The diminutive youkai he used as a retainer and an output to vent his aggression on was tending to Ah-Un’s saddlery, nervously eyeing the newest, unwilling addition to his growing group of companions who was sitting cross-legged on the ground a few meters away. The human child that was so attached to him chatted joyfully to her, but she didn’t seem to answer any of the words, her eyes closed as if she was focusing on something. Or sleeping. He cocked his head to the side when he saw the braids of flowers coiled around each of Kitana’s back spines. Really, the power of this child to find the fragrant plants even in places that appeared devoid of any of them was mesmerizing.

His shifting attention returned to the black female he so blatantly humiliated a few hours earlier. Surprisingly, she fought with valiance even though she was no match for him. He had thought she would be passive and let him maul her until she died. He would not have killed her, but she couldn’t be sure about that and yet she battled against him like there was no tomorrow. Confusing, this will to live, considering her previous and unhealthy fascination with death. Could she be changing her mind?

--

The following days went on in a similar way. The morning sun rose on Kitana’s slender and graceful figure, playing with the winds and the water around her in the clearing to Rin’s utmost delight. Then Sesshomaru intervened and started to toss her around for hours, until she collapsed on the dirt floor. He would give her the rest of the day to recover from the training, hours that she would usually spend dozing near the fire or in the cold water basin underneath the waterfall, nursing her bruised flesh. His cruelty had no end, especially now that he knew the limits of her foreign and intriguing garments. The first strike with his energy whip had been the only one to break her skin. Once she morphed the clothes, he had not been able to spill her blood again. He even wondered at some of his strikes that should have ended up in broken bones, yet did not. The thin black armor seemed able to protect her from cutting strikes as well as blunt ones, to some extent. She was clearly in a lot of pain at the end of their sessions.

Kitana was used to this kind of training, as she experienced harsher treatment in her young days. She did not have any armor then, and everyday her masters invented new ways to attack her without breaking her skin. Surprisingly even to her, she was determined to improve herself as quickly as possible, to show this snobbish youkai that she would one day be the one to kick his ass. Survival was not on her mind, for she wouldn’t have cared about it. Revenge, however, was a reward she couldn’t wait to obtain.

She put the ends of the days to good use; when Sesshomaru finally tired of brutalizing her, she meditated to accelerate her recovery from his blows. Her body had excellent healing capacities, but it wasn’t able to keep up with the speed at which it was damaged and she had to do all she could to help herself to recuperate.

However, there was a problem that she had not yet addressed since the episode with the deer, and it was her hunger. She knew that until she fed she could not gain any major improvement against her captor and she would never be totally healthy. She was at a loss at how to feed without him noticing it. Days turned into a week, then two, before any opening was available. The taiyoukai was keeping a very tight watch over her, especially at night, and she sensed no suitable preys in the vicinity; so she waited.

Sesshomaru became less vigilant over time. It was clear that his mind was drifting onto something else, for he spent more and more time perched atop the ledge exploring their surroundings with his trained senses. Kitana was improving; he couldn’t deny it, for she was getting much better at avoiding his strikes. Her muscles were on the mend, and she was good to his little ward. He did not consider her a danger anymore.

On a night of the second week, her pleas were answered as the youkai put his retainer and dragon steed on guard duty to allow him some rest. He did not have much need for sleep, but since the day when Rin became too ill to travel by herself, he had not taken a single moment of rest. Kitana noticed it. She waited until she could feel his mind wandering away peacefully, and left the camp unnoticed by the two would-be guards.

She came back just before sunrise, feeling better than ever. Her peacefulness was short-lived though, as an extremely furious Sesshomaru met with her. She had felt his anger multiple times before, but never once his strong emotions appeared beyond his mask. This time however, he was obviously having great difficulties at controlling his reactions and on his face was pure fury.

“Where were you, woman?” he asked with a low, aggressive tone. She frowned and held her chin up at him, not cowering under the pressure of his gaze as he surely had anticipated.

“I needed to feed.”

“I thought you finally understood how weak you were, and how easy it would be for Naraku to capture you. You just put everyone in danger by wandering alone by yourself. You should be thankful to be under This Sesshomaru’s protection; or are you in such a hurry to become a slave, a mere part of the hanyou’s body, that you had to go hunting alone?”

He was almost barking at her in his anger, and it was not something she was ready to accept. She would not fall under his control to escape the control of another. Her voice was a mirror of his own fury when she answered.

“Hear my words, Sesshomaru. There is no way I will ever hunt with you again. Your reaction last time was pitiful, as if you had never seen a creature be killed, and I do not want to feel your judgment upon me anymore. My ways clearly disgust you and I will never feel like a freak under your eyes again. Be aware that I am not as dumb as you think I am. I sensed no threat before leaving; no powerful beings were around to ambush me.”

With a low growl he lunged at her in his fury, resolved to show her once again, more clearly than ever, how much training she still needed before being strong enough to face Naraku’s underlings. However, he was in for a surprise. Her earlier meal had a strong effect on her and with her energies on their way to be replenished, she dodged his attack with grace and left him in the dust.

He retaliated with a furious series of attacks with his energy whip, and Kitana quickly covered herself in her armor. The long spears on her forearms clashed with the fast and endless strikes from the youkai’s whip, none of them piercing her skin. She was still much weaker than he was and could never match his speed but she withstanded the pressure amazingly well. He could hardly believe the resistance of the weird clothes she wore, and his wonderings gave her an opening. With a fast swipe of her tail, she almost took his feet from underneath him. His fast reflexes caught her by surprise though as he moved out of the way at the last second. She then felt her waist wrapped in his length of fur, as if it was alive. He threw her away from him and followed after her, slamming her body into a tree with his right shoulder.

Their sparring went on for over an hour before they settled it. It was the most intense workout they ever had. For the first time, Sesshomaru was catching his breath, his tights burning under the pressure he put upon them. Kitana was faring much better than ever before; she was still able to walk when he left her alone. She did not manage to lend a single effective blow on him, but she succeeded to avoid the worst attacks and to receive the others with blocks from her arms, tail or legs rather than with her softer sides, stomach or back. All this sparring was a demonstration of exceptional defensive techniques, but no opponent found an offensive really effective against the other. It was almost a draw.

--

As the sky finally covered itself in pink and oranges hues under the light of the setting sun, Sesshomaru sensed a presence behind him. He had spent the whole day perched atop the ledge, still furious against Kitana for leaving his group and against himself for not being able to track her down. His trained sense of smell could easily detect his half-brother and his allies who were travelling less than a day away from there, but not the foreign creature and it infuriated him. He was thinking about appearing amongst their group to trigger a fight with the hanyou, which could be a good way to spend his pent-up frustration, when the sound of pebbles rolling underneath padded feet reached his ears.

“Sesshomaru”, she said in a peaceful tone. “I won’t thank you for this training that you force upon me. I won’t apologize for leaving during the night either.”

He turned his head slightly toward the ebony form that appeared at his left, malevolently slitting his eyes at her while remaining as immobile and stern as the stones around them.

“However, you need to know that I understand why you react this way, and I have a deep respect for what you do. It warms my heart to know that Rin has such a fierce protector and it is certainly not my will to endanger her in any way.”

She paused for a moment, her words striking a chord in her silent companion. Sesshomaru remembered another being asking him if he had someone to protect, and as ridiculous the idea sounded all those decades ago, now he could say that he was beginning to understand. He had to admit that there were now two main motivations for all of his actions: getting revenge over Naraku and making sure Rin wouldn’t be endangered. His quest for supreme power was not his priority anymore, becoming a means to an end instead of a goal in itself, and he was at a loss about how this change occurred to him.

“You have no trust in me, Sesshomaru, and I have none in you either. Nothing we have done so far could build trust. Nevertheless I’ll do my best to accept your demands, if only you could keep something in mind. I will regain my strength, I swear, and I won’t become a tool for any of your enemies, but I am not one you can gain control over by force. You won’t compel me to stay here and endure your methods and your ways; it’s a choice that is mine to make. And I choose to stay unless you tell me otherwise.”

Long minutes passed before an answer was made, both of them standing still at the edge of the rock. Sesshomaru sensed the truth behind Kitana’s words, and the difficulties she had with his overbearing presence. As much as he wanted to put her under his control, or to see her disappear totally from his sight, her honesty and desire to reach a compromise were met with his approval. She was offering him an honorable truce.

“Do as you wish.”

After a deep, respectful bow, Kitana left his side.