Special Assignment by Azure
Approach With Caution
A quick AN about this story. It came to me randomly and the idea would NOT leave until I birthed it into existance. The chapters are exactly 1,500 words each--a little challenge for myself--and follow the prompts assigned by the Wanted Challenge. Sesshomaru may act a little differently in this story than he has in my other stories as I'm exploring his potential for growth as an old-fashioned taiyoukai in the modern age. But if he seems too OOC please let me know!
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Sesshomaru rapidly flicked through the case file one last time before melting it into nonexistence with his poison. It was a simple enough job, straightforward, with a set goal.
Kill the heir apparent to the Shimo-Koshiki—a comparatively small but mineral-rich island—and his bodyguard and make their bodies disappear.
The only catch was that it needed to look like a local uprising. So Sesshomaru’s cohorts, his half-brother—a brash and comparatively useless hanyou—and their partner Miroku—who they had met in the Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance—were in charge of the setting while Sesshomaru went after the heir and bodyguard.
The brothers had joined the Force Recon because Inuyasha lost a bet with an American general and dragged Sesshomaru into it. Not that he would ever admit to being forced, in his version he joined because he had nothing better to do. There they met Miroku Murasaki, a 2nd generation Japanese-American human and reiki user, and adopted him. After their indentured servitude they started a small independent security agency in Japan, where they got to choose their own clients.
The jobs they took were varied, ranging from high-profile body guarding, to reconnaissance, to clean-up. Clean-up was Sesshomaru’s specialty, unlike his brother and their human; he was a natural born killer.
An explosion rocked the building and Sesshomaru listened through the open window, waiting for the hallway to empty of its inhabitants. The guards were fooled by the diversion, all retreating to uncover its source. One remained outside the chambers of the heir and Sesshomaru curled his claws in anticipation as he moved silently. Using his years of practice he called his human illusion, darkening his eyes and hair and hiding his markings and claws. He also took the time to fabricate the appearance of the uniform that the guards wore so as not to raise suspicion.
“Hey what’s going on down there?” The guard questioned.
“Intruders. I’ve been sent to ensure the safety of the heir, you are asked to backup the men at the gates.” Sesshomaru responded easily.
“And just who the hell do you think you are? You think you can watch the little bitch better than me?” The guard snarled and his statement made Sesshomaru pause.
‘Bitch’? The heir is female? Sesshomaru held back a frown and hoped that the other guard would rescind the statement, he didn’t like killing females. If the heir was female then that violated his rules and their client would probably end up disappointed.
“Your qualifications are not in question. They believe your talents are wasted here with him.” Sesshomaru placated the guard the best way he knew how. Given the choice he’d rather just kill the irritating man and be done with it but a higher body count was not in his client’s best interests so he resigned himself.
“Huh. Well the brat’s an easy job. But the bitch is way more fun to look at.” The guard smirked and Sesshomaru relaxed slightly.
Of course, he refers to the bodyguard being female. That the protector was a woman was also somewhat of a surprise but it didn’t go against his code to kill a woman who chose the warrior’s path.
“Indeed. They only sent me because I do not handle blood well and there seems to be plenty of that at the gate.” Sesshomaru lied easily. It was a lie he’d used before, apparently humans believed that the more elegant or refined a person was, the less likely they’d be to get their hands dirty. How wrong they were.
“Good, I was getting bored anyway. Just don’t let the woman fool you, I bet a pretty boy like you is just her type.” He smirked again and took no time in racing down the hall.
“Fool.” Sesshomaru pushed open the door and slipped into the darkened room, shutting and locking it behind him. As his eyes adjusted to the light change he let his nose take lead, the scents in the room telling him what he needed to know.
Two inhabitants, one a grown female. They are not here. He strode purposefully to the window where a rope was tied and glanced down, surveying the cliffs.
A misshapen figure was just reaching the base. The rope had only taken them halfway down the cliffs and they’d had to climb down to the beach. Sesshomaru scoffed at the excess effort required to be human and stepped off the ledge, dropping soundlessly into the sand over fifty feet below. He waited while the person in front of him broke into two parts, resolving into two figures.
“Good job Rin! I’m so proud of you, you were very brave.” Came the soft voice of the woman on the wind.
“You will give the heir to me.” He commanded, making them whirl.
The woman stepped forward in a crouch, drawing a katana from a sheath at her back in one smooth motion. Sesshomaru felt a moment of nostalgia, missing the feeling of a well-made blade in his hand as he watched the woman hold herself in a practiced defensive stance.
”If I refuse?” She asked calmly.
“You die.”
“So be it. Who are you?” She nodded at his façade. “You’re not a guard, I know all their faces, you’re too tall and your hair is too long.”
“But pretty.” The child piped up helpfully.
“No Rin, we mustn’t be distracted by the enemy's pretty hair.” The girl rolled her eyes, then froze, looking at him with her peripheral vision. As she studied him she smirked. “Oh this is going to be easier than I thought.”
Sesshomaru darted forward, faster than the human eye could track, but as soon as he moved the woman in front of him acted, throwing up a barrier so powerful it blasted away his disguise. The confident smirk bled off the woman’s face as she looked at him, barely ruffled from running into a fully-charged reiki barrier. They stood for a moment in front of each other not as modern bodyguard and assassin but as two naturally opposing forces, miko and youkai.
“Miko.” He acknowledged, keeping the surprise of her powers out of his outward expression.
“Taiyoukai.” She dipped her head. “Sesshomaru Saiga if I’m not terribly mistaken.”
“You know me?” He was surprised, no human should know his name. Even when he did business he used a pseudonym.
“I know all the taiyoukai alive today.” She kept her barrier in tact as she spoke, as if they were having a pleasant normal conversation. “I’d be a fool not to read your dossier.”
“I have a dossier?” He tilted his head to the side, intrigued despite himself. So few things in the modern world interested him and he clung to the emotion like a drowning man.
“Of course. You are the most powerful youkai still in existence.” She smiled and he was struck by the errant thought that she was quite pretty for a mortal woman. “It’s a damn shame you’ve stooped to the level of assassin.”
“There are few careers that accommodate my extensive qualifications.” Sesshomaru commented blandly, surprising himself with how loose his tongue was. “And world ruler is no longer an option.”
“I see.” She looked at him with unreadable dark eyes. “And what of your honor? What happened to your code?”
“I still live by my honor.” He growled, incensed at the suggestion.
“Killing an innocent girl is hardly honorable.”
“I’d hardly call you innocent.” He sneered in return.
“I wasn’t talking about myself.” She held his gaze.
His golden eyes flickered to the large liquid eyes staring soulfully up at him from behind her leg.
“A female child?” He frowned. A closer inspection of the girl’s scent would verify her gender as it was harder to distinguish with children but the miko’s barrier blocked scent and prevented him from verifying her claim.
“She’s been disguised as a boy her whole life. This place is terrible and they abuse her horribly. Please Sesshomaru-sama, if you have any honor left, let me get her out of here.” She begged him with her eyes but did not remove the barrier. “She’ll disappear as surely as if you ‘d killed her.”
Something in him snapped at the suggestion, an old part of his soul that he kept a tight lid on, the overwhelming desire to protect he’d inherited from his father. If anyone ever needed his protection it was the two women standing before him and he felt his youki and soul both flare out.
The woman dropped her barrier and his inner beast wrapped cords of binding around both figures instantly without his consent. His instinct acted on its own and claimed both females irrevocably as his.
“I’m sorry.” The woman murmured, blasting him with a brilliant wave of reiki.
He was more shocked by his instincts, which forbade retaliation and locked his limbs than the attack itself. As a result he took the full force of her power and was knocked backwards, darkness claiming his vision.
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Please review! I love your input!
-Az.