Angelus

Chapter 9

Under the moonlight, the pale skinned woman slowly started to move against Kitana, her breath becoming faster once again, trying to engage into other heated activities with her new partner. Kitana, however, was coming out of her trance. Opening her eyes, she looked at the figure of the girl and clearly noticed the differences. Ines was not Jess; and she had never been. Her eyes were a dull greenish-grey, not the deep emerald green she so longed to see again. Her hairs were more of a deep auburn than truly red, and her face was too rounded and ordinary, she did not have the beautiful, exquisite traits of her past love. Wincing as she realized what she had just done, Kitana quickly put her suit back on and rose, intent of getting out of there as fast as she could manage.

“Wait! Don’t you want to stay with me, my love? Are you already tired of my touch, me, a feeble mortal?”

The girl extended her hand toward Kitana, in an invite that very few could have refused. Her eyes were still hazy from the pleasure she experienced mere moments earlier, and her skin was still flushed from all the activity of the night, giving her a very sensual, if not overly sexual look. The black female couldn’t care less though, and she turned her back to the provocative girl, trying not to listen to her pleas for attention.

“Don’t leave me! If you stay at my side, I promise that you will be recognized and honoured as my guardian and protector. We will share every waking hour, and all the nights to come. No man will touch me, ever.”

Ines pleading eyes shined with a madness that Kitana hadn’t noticed before, as tears slowly descended along her cheeks.

“No! You can’t go! I am a princess, I order you to stay with me! You can’t leave me, do you hear me?”

The naked, distressed girl was now standing on the rock where they made love an instant earlier, her voice reaching higher levels as her panic grew. Kitana was about to answer her when she felt other presences quickly approaching, surrounding them; she frowned angrily.

“Your soldiers are here, my lady. You will forget what happened tonight. It was a sad mistake from my part triggered by grief and loneliness. You should not suffer from my foolishness. You will go back to your duties and forgive me for what I did.”

With that, she jumped into a neighbouring tree and leapt away, silently returning to her camp. She heard the scream of the girl as she was moving away, calling her soldiers to her, sobbing about a cruel demon that abused of her. She shook her head and moved faster, putting as much distance as possible between this nightmare and her.

She bathed again before joining her companions, scrubbing her skin hard, trying to remove all the scent of the girl from her person. At that precise moment she longed for soap, lots of purifying, perfumed soap. She had a good idea of how sensible Sesshomaru’s sense of smell was, and she certainly didn’t want to be faced with his questions as she returned to camp.

But he said nothing. He was half-asleep when she came back at breaking dawn, and he only slid an eye open at her approach, meeting her gaze. He looked at her for a short instant, and then returned to his rest. Rin soon rose and started talking about the dreams she had that night, of flowers and butterflies dancing around her.

“Oh Kitana-sama, could you please make the flowers dance around Rin today? Rin would love that, it is sooo beautiful!” exclaimed the child.

In her last training sessions she had taken the young girl as a secondary target for her wind and water attacks. As she sent larger blasts of cutting winds and water blades to the most offending trees she could find, chopping them into pieces, she kept her mind concentrated on sending whirling leaves, droplets of water and petals around the little Rin. It made a good practice session for the ebony creature, and the child would turn and jump in the center of the small whirlwind, bouncing and laughing so hard it was contagious. They would soon find themselves laying on their back in the clearing that she created, looking at the forms in the clouds and the birds playing in the skies. Smiling, Kitana answered.

“Let’s first find you a suitable meal so your stomach will not start to grumble in the middle of your dance, little miss sunshine.”

The child nodded and headed for the river. She was fond of fish, a meal easy to catch with her small hands. Surprisingly Kitana jumped before her in the water, swiftly catching large fishes that would sustain their entire group for the day to come. Sesshomaru, as much as he loathed food prepared by humans, loved freshly caught fish and meat. He had grown accustomed to share his ward’s meals once in a while, when his hunger was strong enough. Kitana thought that he would find nothing strange in the preparation of a larger meal, and the smell of the fish would surely mask whatever inappropriate scent lingered upon her.

Sesshomaru was looking at all this busy activity with impassive eyes. If he had not witnessed the events of the night, he would say that nothing had changed, that it was an ordinary morning. Kitana was acting just as she did usually, maybe with a little bit more enthusiasm. He couldn’t help but try to distance himself from her, concerned that she would discover his discomfort. The taiyoukai suspected that girl to be able to read his true feelings as easily as if he was an open book, maybe even surpassing the young Rin in that domain, and he would certainly not unconsciously reveal to her what he was going through. So as soon as the meal was finished, he moved on, going in the opposite direction from the human village, his mind filled with thoughts of revenge upon Naraku who was entirely responsible for every unpleasant thing that was happening in his life.

Kitana herself kept her distances from the taiyoukai; she was too lost in her thoughts to care about whatever emotions she sensed coming from him. She was so focused on her own ordeal that she tuned out whatever she received from the other members of the group, trying to sort out her true feelings, to delve deeper inside of her, reaching depths she knew she would have to face someday. But she couldn’t; not now, not then, never. She tried to keep up a façade of normality, when in reality she craved to curl up in a small ball in a faraway corner and disappear, melting somewhere in a forgotten hole. Remembrances of days similar to these came rushing at her, and when it happened she did her best to provoke Sesshomaru in a sparring match or a bickering session, which would anyway end up in a battle amongst the trees or in the plains. These violent outbursts helped her to keep her mind away from the dangerous shadowed area of her soul that attracted her so much. She attempted to build a wall around these disturbing feelings, for she couldn’t escape them in death nor live with them.

Sesshomaru didn’t know what to do with what he witnessed. He couldn’t quite place Kagura’s role in the whole affair and suspected some parts of the scene to be under her control or direction, at least. The human girl was not dead, that was for sure, but what interest did Kagura have by placing him on the way of the hot spring he couldn’t fathom. She was not one to do something for no reason, and surely she thought she would benefit from his discovery.

Nonetheless, he decided that he wouldn’t concern himself with the matter anymore. Kitana had not passed any comment on his attitude, which he took great care not to change in the slightest, and she did not change hers. All was good from what he could see, and he was not one to mingle himself in the private life of others, for usually he never cared for others than himself and his group. He concluded that if she wanted to rut with teenager girls in hot springs, she could do it as much as she wanted as long as it stayed private.

Kitana’s attempts at keeping a clear mind pushed her to talk more with Sesshomaru. He was not talkative at all, except for when he angrily answered to her impolite bickering, so it was quite a task for her to question him and stay within boundaries of polite conversation. On a sunny afternoon, they crossed through a rice field under the wary eyes of peasants. None of them threatened their group, keeping as much distance as possible between them and the demons, but Kitana could feel their fear, hatred and reject intensely. As they finally reached the peacefulness of the cherry groves that bordered the fields, Kitana spoke her mind.

“Sesshomaru, tell me… The youkai and the humans don’t seem to get along well, from what I understand.”

“Hn. This Sesshomaru doesn’t concern himself with mortal matters. Higher youkai don’t either.”

“Then why does a human child travel with you? She loves and trusts you, a youkai, and you let her follow you around.”

She did not mention the strong feelings she commonly felt from the taiyoukai when he observed the playing child or protected her from a threat.

The taiyoukai was a man of few words.

“One day Rin was killed. This Sesshomaru revived her and since then she followed.”

Puzzled, she asked “you revived her? Or maybe you healed her?”

He stopped walking and turned his head to the low branch overhanging him, where she hung upside down. Without uttering a word, he unsheathed his Tenseiga and showed it to her.

“You never use this sword in battle, only the other one” she commented.

“The Tenseiga is a healing sword that can revive the dead. It is the sword that brought Rin back to life, and it is the sword that pushed this Sesshomaru to take you from the cocoon cave. It is quite an unreliable sword that made an especially foolish decision at that time, but in a way you owe it your life, just as Rin does.”

That being said, he returned the sword to its sheath and led his group over another set of hills, in search of the ever-elusive scent of Naraku. His words sparked a million of other questions, and she was quite content with that for it silenced her melancholy.

Kitana’s mind was not the only one that needed occupations. Sesshomaru was at a lost as how to find his arch-enemy, and he was under the unpleasant impression that he was made a fool of, following scent trails that vanished hours later, to reappear later going in the opposite direction. He was growing frustrated by his quest, and had had much time to ponder the events of the last days. He had come to term with his forbidden desires and buried them deeply inside, with so many other feelings that he kept well hidden within him. That was the only way he knew to continue with his search for power and revenge without being distracted by insignificant emotions and feelings. Some questions though, were eating at his patience and he found that it was better to ask them than to try to silence them. On a rainy afternoon, as they rested in a small alcove at the foot of an escarpment, he asked one of these questions.

“Your powers…”

Kitana looked at him, waiting for the rest of the phrase. She knew he was not comfortable asking about something, and sometimes she could help him by answering before he truly asked, but the question to come was not an easy one, she thought. She gave him the time he needed to precise his demand, while she listened at the soft sound of the rain upon green foliage.

“They are not youki, and yet they are not reiki either. Explain that.”

“Youki, reiki?” she asked, intently looking at her. Maybe she could obtain some answers herself, in this uneasy sharing of information. He stared at her, and then turned his head toward the hazy scenery offered by the downpour.

“Youkai use an energy called youki, and some humans can call an opposed force called reiki, or holy powers. Those energies are natural opponents and negate each other; yet, your powers are related to neither of them.”

She understood what he was speaking of, and took a deep breath. His gaze came back to hers when she spoke.

“Interesting. I… somehow felt that the power of the youkai I met came from an intense energy source. Fuelled by anger, maybe?”

Not liking to see his question thrown back at him, Sesshomaru contemplated not answering anymore but curiosity got the better of him. He would have to share if he wanted to learn from her.

“Strong, tainted emotions are what give birth to youki. Reiki, on the other hand, seems to be born out of equally strong emotions, only they are pure.”

“Like hatred and love?”

He nodded once, subtly.

“It is more… complex than that, but it is a good example. What are your powers?”

“So that’s why you keep such tight reins over your feelings… Your youki could be fuelled by your emotions and… make you loose control, maybe?”

His coldest glare met her questioning eyes, chilling her to the bone.

“This Sesshomaru does not loose control, woman. Never make such an idiotic assumption again.”

“Well, I’m sorry!” she said, her hands in the air as if to ask for peace. “I’ve got to understand how things work here if I want to live here you know. It’s the first time I meet such a polarity in energies. Mine are much more… neutral.”

His gaze did not falter from her eyes, putting pressure upon her. He would not ask again, but he would get his answers.

“You see, you told me that there were two strong, but opposite sources of power in your world. My own energy is neutral, coming from the environment around us.”

She paused to gather her thoughts, knowing he would not be satisfied by that little bit of information.

“In fact, I don’t possess that much energy just by myself, not like you. I act as a catalyst; I bring out and concentrate the energies that surround me. I use the forces of nature, the energies carried by the earth, the water, the flesh of living creatures, the mind. Those energies are neutral, not dark nor pure.”

The side glance that he gave her beckoned her to continue.

“Water can give life to a thirsty creature, but it could also drown it. Fire can burn, but it can also warm up the chilled ones. I could probably channel those youki and reiki you speak of, but neutral energies are easier to find because one does not need a conscious being to create them. Every planet of the universe is filled with energy; even the void of space between worlds carries streams of neutral energy. The neutrality is broken when a living creature adds an emotion to the flow of energies, but there is always a balance, a homeostasis that brings things toward neutrality again. No living creature is totally positive or negative. I do not know how or why the balance has been so blatantly broken here on this world, but someday it will either slowly come back to full neutrality, or escalate to reach extreme levels of tainted and pure powers, fighting each other before being consumed and neutralized.”

Sesshomaru’s thoughts immediately pictured a pink, glowing jewel that was said to contain the fighting souls of a very powerful youkai and a human priestess.

“Foolishness. Youkai were thriving here way before the humans overpopulated the country, and we will certainly continue to do so after they will be gone.”

That being said, he rose from his sitting position and ventured outside. The rain had stopped.
One morning they arrived near a human town when they heard a huge blasting noise. Rin was frightened but a simple look from Sesshomaru was enough to calm her down. Kitana however, was not one to obey Sesshomaru as willingly as Rin and she made her way to the village, hidden amongst the tree branches. To her surprise, she found that Sesshomaru followed her.

Perched together on a large tree, they took their time to inspect what had caused the blast. A group of foreign-looking humans were present at the outskirts of the village, Portuguese or Dutch people as far as Sesshomaru could say. Westerners. They were showing the lord of the town a large array of their weapons, especially long arquebus and a couple of smaller cannons. With them were human priests clad in long, black robes, bearing a cross on their chest. When one of those priests looked their way, Kitana sensed his fear of this foreign nation and his desire to compel the natives into obedience and submission. Fear and fanaticism were never a good mix, she thought. They left the place and returned to their travels.

Later in the afternoon, they came across a meadow showing a desolating scene of battle. A large group of over a hundred samurai had been decimated, and there was not a single body from their enemies in sight. The corpses showed no sign of sword or arrow wounds either, only small bloody holes that pierced their iron armour and helmets.

Sesshomaru’s eyes became slits as he eyed the wounds. “Foreigners.” Then he casually walked away, followed by his companions. The vision of these wounds did not leave him though, and later in the night he went to Kitana as she was about to join Rin in her sleep.

“The humans. You told This Sesshomaru that they were a common species in the other worlds. Tell me about that.”

Kitana was tired, but the sight of the foreign soldiers and priests and the field full of samurai corpses troubled her also. It was the first sign she found of a more advanced technology on this world, and she did not like it at all.

“I cannot say much about that, since it is a mystery even for them. Humans seem to have evolved on many a world at the same time. Some of their civilizations are extremely old and advanced, and some like the one here are more primitive."

“How could they do that? They are weak, insignificant. Surely there are more powerful species on your other worlds that could have wiped them away easily.”

“There are, of course: very powerful beings, long-lived, physically strong. But none have been more prolific and successful than the humans yet. Humans are weak physically, you are right, but they have huge advantages over most other species. They are very inventive and have respect for nothing, not even themselves.”

Sesshomaru’s attention was fully on her now. “Explain.”

“Humans invent things to compensate for their weaknesses. Primitive humans gather in groups to be stronger, they invent weapons to kill animals and wear their furs so they are not killed by the cold. Then they learn how to grow their food and breed animals for their use. More advanced humans continue to develop weaponry, modes of communication, agriculture, transportations, medicine. They transform everything around them to suit their needs, without any respect for the world that sustain their lives. Other species tend to specialize in a domain, be very proficient in transport but lacking in the weaponry, or being extremely skilled in agriculture but never developing anything in other technologies. There are many species that are better than the humans in a field or another, but their abilities to develop new ideas in every single domain of science is what makes the humans so successful. To add to that ability, they shamelessly exploit their environment to the maximum of what it can gives, adapting it to their needs with no regard for the other living species that depend of it. So wherever they live, they thrive despite their apparent weakness and lack of skills.”

She was right, of course. He had seen the humans change in the last 700 years. It was true that they modified very quickly their environment to suit them. No youkai was as skilled as they were at changing and morphing the landscape into something else, at inventing and modifying weaponry to overcome the improvements in their enemies’ defences. The arrival of the westerners was only another proof of their adaptability. And it did not please him.

On the next day, as she was resting from a hard sparring session, it was her turn to ask him with a question he had expected to come up much earlier.

“Tel me Sesshomaru: who is this Naraku guy? Is he strong enough to justify all this training? I think I have improved a lot since I awakened, I don’t feel weak anymore. Don’t you think I could defeat him now that I manage to hit you once in a while?”

The tiredness of her tone was mixed with mirth and it did not evade him.

“Do not be a fool, woman. One such as you could not fall Naraku. Your training is so you can evade his attacks and destroy his minions. Naraku is mine.”

“Oh, so you are possessive hey? I bet I could kick his ass… If only he would come at me in a deep forest and not on those ridiculous plains where there are no places to hide…”

Sesshomaru would not fall for her taunts; for if he did she would regret it dearly. Instead he decided that it was wiser to educate her a little about this foe.

“Your sneaky ways would be of no use against him; he his master of treachery. He is nothing but a mere hanyou, and to survive against ones as strong as This Sesshomaru he has to know and use the strengths and weaknesses of his enemies. He would face you in an environment that would give him the upper hand, you can count on that.”

“So if he is so weak, why is he still alive?”

Slit, angry eyes met with her own mischievous ones.

“Do not insult This Sesshomaru. I will find and destroy this beast; there is no doubt about that. It is the finding part that is tedious; for Naraku has an uncanny ability to mask his very presence.”
Silence followed his words, only to be broken minutes after by more questioning.
“What is he after?”

She noticed his ire was rising once again, but it didn’t deter her.

“Don’t you know his motivations? Why are you his enemy?”

“This Sesshomaru doesn’t care what the hanyou is after. Power, as far as I know.”

“So what differentiates him from you, or me, or even Jaken, if power is what he seeks? Aren’t we all like alike in that matter?”

He rose from his sitting position, towering up above her prone form. His mask of indifference was broken by furious eyes that would have made anyone whimper and ask for mercy. Anyone but Kitana, as she was eagerly awaiting an answer.

“We have nothing in common. The hanyou dared to use This Sesshomaru to do his lowly chores. Then he abducted Rin and tried to use her as hostage to force his will upon me. That is why he will die.”
Satisfied by his answer, Kitana didn’t push him any further. She rose after him and joined the games of the sunny little Rin while they followed Sesshomaru on his path for conquest.

--

As the days passed, Sesshomaru found out that he truly appreciated his newest companion. At night, when he tried to find some inner peace by staring at the stars and the moon, he often let his mind wander about her. Kitana was not a burden to him anymore, more of a comrade. He had rarely met someone who could confront him on so many subjects and live to tell the tale. Her interventions acted as an inspiration to his mind that was already eager to learn more. Knowledge was power after all. He was taking great care not to let his aloof façade slip and talked as little as he could, but he was definitively interested by their conversations. Kitana was also kind to his ward and firm toward his retainer. She was a mature adult presence by his side, with a deeper personality than the young mind of his ward and definitely more interesting than the bitter and mean Jaken. And she had been an excellent sparring partner, something he had not had since his young days as a trainee. His own skills were extraordinary, but it felt good to be once again improving his techniques by sparring with a capable partner, especially on the verge of an imminent clash with the hanyou Naraku. And even if he took for granted that he would not need any help in ending the dark hanyou’s life, Kitana’s strength would eventually prove to be an asset in the encounter for she could stop the youkai scum spawned by Naraku from interfering in his own fight. He came to the conclusion that regardless of what he saw at the hot spring all those days ago, she was now a welcomed part of his group.

He overcame his bad experience of the hot spring and about a week after the humiliating incident, he resumed his habit of tracking his newest follower when she left at night. He knew his ability to find her could come in handy and justified the time spent looking after her by the strengthening of his sense of smell. This sense that he once thought of as perfect was giving him nightmares lately, with the disgusting Naraku evading him as easily as a mere puppy. Training his nose on the subtle, evanescent aromas of the foreign creature could only help him catching up with his foe.

One night, however, he did not find her. Her smell was lost to him when a strong wind decided to whip furiously at the trees and a heavy downpour started, drenching him to the bones in an instant. Using his youki to dry up quickly, he took to the skies and returned to his group. His useful two-headed dragon had already provided shelter to his ward by letting her crawl underneath his belly and only Jaken was suffering of the rain. He led them to an overhanging cliff that blocked most of the rain, not wanting to admit that he was waiting for the fifth member of his group to catch up with them.

She never did.

The taiyoukai managed to calm Rin’s anxiety of not seeing her friend again by a few, well-place “Do not be foolish, Rin.” He wished his own worries would be as easy to silence as the child’s. He drowned these inappropriate, protective and troubled thoughts under a renewed anger. The woman would pay when he would find her, if she had not already crossed path with his mortal enemy. How was he reduced to develop this unwelcome protective attitude toward the members of his group lately he didn’t know, but it unnerved him terribly. She did not deserve his loyalty or his care, as all she did was endanger his followers by her very existence, but she somehow managed to obtain it. And it would not do.

His search lasted two whole days. He went through great difficulties in finding her scent, and he discovered that the annoying creature spent a large part of her time immersed in water bodies. Lakes, rivers and tree branches seemed to be her favourite ways to travel. How frustrating, he thought, that he who was so powerful and could transport himself in a light ball directly upon the source of his enemies’ scents couldn’t track her properly.

On the second night of search, he finally caught up with her scent. It was underneath smells of battle, human and youkai blood and body fluids that he found what he was searching for. Suddenly, a powerful youki flared aggressively ahead of him, in the direction of the smells. Frowning, he left his ward under Ah-Un’s and Jaken’s care and he hastened his pace, not certain of what he would find.