*UPDATE*(1/31/2019):
So I'm back.... >.>
Believe it or not, I do intend to finish this. After finishing my other smut fic, I realized there were several elements of this one that could be tweaked to make the story run more as I want it to. So I'll be updating all of the prior chapters and editing them along with finally adding new chapters and completing this. This has been nagging me for years so it's time to finish it. Apologies and hope you enjoy.
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He recognized the lithe, black-clothed form of the Warrior Priestess Kagome as she dodged the demon that was clumsily attacking her. He did not bother to assist. He had seen the developments of the Priestess’s powers over the years. Since his half-brother had split from his original pack, she had struck out on her own. Rumor had it she had learned all she could from the taijya that traveled with her before leaving, and had boarding a ship headed for the continent.
Twenty years had passed since then and the first time the Western Lord had seen her after that period was when she had purposefully headed for their camp with the purpose of asking after her human pack. Rin had married the taijya’s brother Kohaku and had been living in Edo where the priestess was supposedly from. He had remembered that she had been fond of his former ward and had told her where to find her…but not without questioning. The girl who had assisted in the destruction of Naraku and who had originally left her pack was very different from the one who returned.
Clothed in black armor from the neck down, her startlingly blue eyes no longer shone with the innocence of youth that he remembered, but sparkled and glinted like diamonds. She carried weapons he had never seen along with her bow and arrows; a double-sided staff with hidden blades of blue tinted steel at each end, and twin, curved rail thin blades made from some sort of ice-blue gemstone that Sesshoumaru could not comprehend fighting with. They had seemed too thin and fragile to take the abuse of battle.
Her aura was different than he remembered as well. It was immense. He had first noticed whenever she would flare her aura in courtesy to him when they happened to be in close proximity to each other. She had always been in possession the immense power that he had felt during the final battle with Naraku, but it had always been untrained. It was meticulously honed now and felt even more powerful than before. The fact that it was nearly even with his was what drew this recent bout of curiosity. That, and also the fact that she had not aged a day from what he knew to be roughly twenty human years old, even though nearly forty years had passed. And it was the curiosity to see exactly how she had developed over the years that drew him to watch her battle with the demon she was currently fighting.
She separated from her foe and landed gently on her toes. She paused there for just a moment before drawing her twin, gemstone blades in a blurring, youkai-fast movement that she as a human shouldn’t have been capable of. In another similarly blurring movement, she was back on her foe, blades dancing in movements that were beautiful and deadly. She drove the demon back to the tree line of the clearing, nearly looking like she was dancing, her movements were so graceful. Sesshoumaru’s regard for the Priestess increased steadily as he watched her dance of blades.
It was only when she landed and her eyes flashed to him that she paused in her movements. She looked surprised, which confused the Western Lord. He had not bothered to hide his aura upon approach. He was further surprised when she paused for long enough that the demon spat venom at her. She shook herself and leapt straight in the air, barely managing to avoid the attack but in her haste to correct her misstep, failed to notice the second round of venom directed at her…which she again flipped to avoid. She managed to miss the bulk of it because the trees that had been behind her sizzled and hissed as large gobs of the black slime made contact with their trunks.
But he heard an agonized yell of pain and he watched the priestess hit the ground harder than she should have and stumble. His ears picked up muttered curses as one black-gloved hand still clenching a crystalline blade rose to quickly scrub across her eyes. She blinked furiously trying to rid herself of the spatters of viscous black slime that covered her eyes, but only succeeded in rubbing it in further.
Sesshoumaru wondered if she knew that the demon was charging her. But she could obviously use her other senses because her head flew up and she dove to the side of the charging demon at the last second. The hulking thing went thundering through the spot she had previously occupied. He wondered if she could kill the demon without her sight. But the minute she was temporarily out of the path of the youkai, she rolled to her feet (not as quickly as she had before, Sesshoumaru noticed) and turned her head directly at the demon that was still getting its bearings from its blind charge. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, but the swords suddenly blazed the pure pink that accompanied reiki and she charged the disoriented demon’s back. With one swift movement, she sank both swords into the demon’s body and held them there.
The demon threw its head back and screamed as its body blackened and its skin cracked and blistered. Within seconds, all that remained was ash.
Sesshoumaru was grudgingly impressed. He had been unaware that the Priestess now wielded so much power and speed. She was a force to be reckoned with if she decided to take the path of her predecessors and eradicate any demon she came across.
He stepped out of the shadows of the trees and approached the Priestess who was still standing in the same place, sheathing her swords with shaking hands. He flared his aura as a courtesy, one he had never extended until now. It was only done if one recognized another of significant power. In his case, he would have done so for another daiyoukai, but the Warrior Priestess Kagome was clearly on a power level deserving of this recognition, even if her fighting skills were not perfect.
She flared her aura in response to his and dipped into a bow of respect. He noticed an odd fluctuation in her aura but paid it no mind.
“Sesshoumaru-sama,” she murmured.
“Miko,” he replied, though he thought the title was way less than she now deserved. She had long surpassed the abilities of an average miko.
There was a silence for a moment as they remained facing each other. But Sesshoumaru watched a minute shudder run the length of her body and he watched her squeeze her eyes tighter in pain. The sour scent of the youkai’s venom began to subtly mix with her’s.
She took a deep breath and began to speak to him. “Sesshoumaru-sama, I apologize for inconveniencing you by asking…but do you see a black bag on the ground anywhere?” She had begun to shake and she was swaying where she stood.
Sesshoumaru’s eyes swept the clearing and located what she asked for. “It is forty paces directly behind you.”
She looked confused at his assistance in finding it. Had she expected him to deny having seen it?
But she seemed to shake off her doubt. “Ah-thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama.” She turned on her heel and took shaking steps in the direction of her bag. When she did, he could see three small black spines protruding from the small of her back. The same black venomous slime that covered her eyes dripped from the broken off ends of these and he realized where the sour smell was coming from. .
She swayed again just before she reached her bag, but managed to balance herself to reach it. She quickly dug deep inside and pulled out a clear container of what he scented was water. The container was unlike anything he had ever seen. It was clear like glass, but the Miko picked it up in her hand and squeezed it to spray water on her slime covered eyes—something that wouldn’t have been possible with a glass container. His curiosity about her increased as she dug out a cloth from her strange black bag to scrub away the slime.
He padded up silently behind her just to see what she was doing from closer range. He wondered when she would pull the spines from her back. The venom was advancing through her system and she seemed unaware.
She blinked her eyes and gasped in pain. She immediately poured more water on a clean part of the cloth and scrubbed at her eyes.
“Great,” she muttered to herself. “This black crap is still covering my eyes.”
Sesshoumaru noticed that while the outsides of her eyes were clear when she had blinked, a grayish film had covered her eyes. He knew it was remnants of the venom.
He observed her for another ten minutes or so. He realized something was wrong when she did not address him or acknowledge his presence at all. He was standing about five feet to the side and she had to feel his aura. He was not making an attempt to conceal it. However, she sat there scrubbing at her eyes and blinking repeatedly. She had even muttered once about finding a stream to clear the venom from her eyes. However, Sesshoumaru did not think she would be successful in her endeavors. She would have to make it to water first and she had no way of achieving such an endeavor in her current state. He also didn’t like how quickly the venom was beginning to permeate her natural scent.
He sighed inaudibly decided to speak up. He recognized her as pack and could not allow her to succumb to the venom. Alphas did not allow pack to die.
“Miko.”
Her head whipped toward him. “S-Sesshoumaru-sama?” The Western Lord frowned at the note of panic in her voice. He disliked her panic and knew things were very wrong when he realized she could not sense him. He had not heard her once sound scared after she had returned from her training on the continent. He found it wrong on many levels so see her brought to this.
She made an attempt to scramble to her feet from where she was kneeling. But when she planted a foot to heave herself to her feet, she unbalanced herself and fell sideways…where she lay breathing hard. Her whole body shivered again, this time strong enough to shake her entire frame. She pressed a palm against the dirt in another effort to heave herself to her feet and managed to raise her upper body slightly, only to drop back to the ground.
“Sesshoumaru… I—,” she swallowed convulsively and shuddered more harshly. “I can’t move.” Her voice came out a whisper.
The Western Lord ignored the lack of honorific crouched beside the priestess’s body. The spines in her back were still oozing black slime and he could smell the sour of it further permeating her system. He did not remove them for he knew doing so would push the venom through her body even faster. But it was already moving quickly and he knew he could no longer afford to waste any time. He had not had enough coaching in the arts of healing to help her with an injury such as this.
He decided that he would take her to Kyoji, the healer for the Western stronghold.
He leaned over to slide his arms under her upper body and beneath her legs. He lifted her, taking care not to brush the spines against anything so that they would not get shoved in further.
“Sesshoumaru?” The small priestess started and tried to struggle in his grip, but her attempts were beyond feeble. She could barely move her arms at this point. And he wondered if he could make it in time. He did not bother to explain anything to the priestess as he did not want her to hurt herself struggling. Also, he wanted her still; moving would push the venom through her veins even faster.
He pulled his youki around him to form his energy ball and then they were flying through the air. He heard Kagome gasp out something about her bag and asking him where she was taking her, but the words were slurred and nearly unintelligible. Five minutes into the flight, she was unconscious and sweating in fever. Sesshoumaru pushed himself further. He would never allow pack to die.
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