Summary: Kagome prepares for her presentation at the youkai courts and her challengers.
Edited: Jan 8, 2012
AN: Reviewers, thanks all of you for the comments, included some interaction with her stepsons in this chapter.
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~ooO Challenges 1 Ooo~
Kagome resisted the urge to fidget. She was not ready for this! She was going to die!
“Relax,” a slightly young sounding male voice interrupted her morbid thoughts. “Chichi-ue wouldn’t have chosen to present you at this court gathering if he wasn’t sure you can handle it; and any challengers.”
Kagome smiled wryly and turned to the teenage boys sitting across from her. They were so much like their father, with long silky silver hair and gold eyes; only theirs were wider and more round than their father. Sesshoumaru took after his mother in the shape of his eyes. Kagome wondered what features the boys had from the… breeder, their mother. There was a possibility she was still alive but Kagome was not too concerned. She had not attempted to form a connection with her offspring all these centuries and Kagome could not see the situation changing now.
She had been afraid to meet them at first, afraid they would see her as an interloper and undesirable, a weakness and not fit to be the Western Lord’s mate. But she had been wrong. They had accepted her without any qualms from the start. Probably because they knew Sesshoumaru was serious about her, because he had never even seriously considered taking a mate in the past three hundred years.
Oddly enough, they sort of reminded her of InuYasha, with their tendency to roam wildly on whims, and their blatantly territorial instincts. Hopefully they would grow out of it and develop the restrained elegance and manners that were characteristic of their sire. Puppies were cute but they were getting close to maturity… and no female would consider them as serious mating candidates if they continued to run wild. Kagome had been shocked at the predatory savageness of both boys and had asked Sesshoumaru if this was normal, expected.
“Yes. They are youkai. The instinct of the beast is very close to that of the logical mind. They must recognize, accept, and use both.”
“Do you have the files?” she murmured. And then she accepted the slim folders from Touga, the elder with distinctively slanted eyes. Katsuro’s eyes were more round.
Kagome selected one at random and flipped it open. It was an old-style hard copy SWOT analysis of one of the more powerful unmated female youkais. The file listed her affiliations, threat-level, fighting styles, tactics, personality, influential relationships. Many of them seemed overwhelmingly powerful at first glance. But she had an advantage none of them would expect…she was a miko. She forced herself to go through each file carefully, making notes on possible tactics and strategies to try. She managed to get through six files before halting in her self-imposed task.
“I wish your father was here,” she whispered looking away into the middle distance without truly seeing.
Both inu-youkai teens glanced at each other uncertain of what to say to that. But they did try to make her feel better.
“Father is not the emotional type but even we can see he wants to be with you as well,” Touga offered soothingly.
Kagome shook her head. “I hate being apart from him,” she confessed. “When I turn around I expect him to be standing next to me, offering caustic comments and cutting critiques.”
“Have you tried calling him?” Katsuro asked. “I heard hearing a mates voice can help.”
The miko sighed. “It helps while he is talking. Five minutes after we hang up I ache again.”
Touga made a small face. Oh yes, the reason for her ache and her longing were very clear in her scent pheromones and aura: she was fertile and ripe to conceive. Just hours after the scent change was undeniable their sire had chosen to move into one of the many penthouses owned by Taisho Corp.
“I cannot stay around Kagome and maintain control. She is my bitch and every instinct is screaming at me to fill her with my seed and not leave until she is pupped.”
Thankfully he and his brother had not yet experienced sexual maturity and were considered as ‘safe’ to protect a fertile female while her male was away.
“Chichi-ue told you why he had to leave,” Katsuro murmured. “If he stayed his beast would have driven him to pup you. Not a wise act when you are due to step into the Challenge Grounds. Too many whores have been chasing chichi-ue for decades and they won’t hesitate to take full advantage of a pregnant opponent.”
She blushed a soft pink but did not stammer excuses and try to gloss over the intimate topic of conversation. It was not the youkai way to hide and deny any aspect of life. Katsuro had been surprised and pleased with her acceptance. Even ningens born into clans affiliated with youkai had difficulty accepting; and they had been taught youkai ways since childhood.
Then Touga voiced a question that caught her by surprise. “Do you want chichi-ue to pup you?” he asked curious.
Kagome was certain her cheeks were probably bright pink by this point, but she forced herself to respond to her new stepson’s query. “Yes.”
He frowned. “Aren’t you kind of young? Most ningens your age want to go to university, have some fun, then find a job.”
She smiled wryly. “I have never been typical. My educational history was ruined by my travels into the past. I’ve spent more time studying a miko’s disciplines, herb lore and spells than chemistry and physics. I think I’m probably going to focus on working with my reiki finishing a few online courses. At least for the next five-six years.”
Both inu-youkai teens eyed the woman who was biologically two years older than them but chronologically more than three centuries younger. In all the tales recited by their father and ji-san Shippo the Shikon miko had always seemed wise and ageless. Looking at her now, they could see there was something in her eyes that evoked those eternal qualities. She was kind, giving, gentle, and unyielding. Katsuro looked away first, Touga six seconds later.
Touga could definitely understand why their father respected her, why he had chosen her, why he had withdrawn when she entered the fertile phase of her cycle. He was almost certain there would be new pups born to the House of the Moon within a year. As soon as the challenges were done and the mating sealed, father was going to go into seclusion with Kagome and only return once she was carrying. A soft puff of air escaped his lips as he wondered how they were going to adjust to pups and a new loving matriarch when the House of the Moon had consisted of just four for so long. He snorted softly and wondered if Satori-obaa-san had any idea of what was happening, of the miko chichi-ue had chosen as mate. Knowing his father he doubted it.
~o~
Kagome put away the folders and pulled out a leather bound notebook containing transcriptions and translations of various scrolls recovered from Horai Island. The island had once been a refuge to hanyou children, especially hanyous born to a ningen parent with reiki. InuYasha and herself and defeated the Four War Gods who were using the hanyous as energy sources to charge up their own power.
A few years after she had vanished from the past Sesshoumaru had visited the residents of the island and requested copies of all the scrolls and artefacts; the island was no longer a guaranteed safe haven anymore. They had refused to leave their home but were willing to fulfill the request - especially after he revealed he was Alpha to the Shikon Miko, the one who saved them from the Four War Gods. Over the decades the scrolls had been transcribed and translated into the most modern version of kanji being used. The leather-bound notebook was the most recent translation work in letters Kagome was familiar with.
It was in these scrolls Kagome found clues to explain the hanyous of Horai Island, hanyous with both jyaki and reiki. It was their existence that gave the miko hope she would eventually have children of her own – children she would love as much as she loved their father… Sesshoumaru. He might believe it was impossible for a miko to conceive and bear a powerful daiyoukai’s offspring but Kagome had felt otherwise and the Horai scrolls had proven her right. The private journals of one of the more powerful mikos gave her enough information to determine what she needed to do in order to conceive and carry to full term.
She just needed to get through these bloody challenges and then they would be in the clear. No one would be able to say Sesshoumaru was weak for taking a ningen, a miko, as mate. And once she gave him children no one could say she was shirking her obligations as his mate and lady.
~ooOoo~ooOoo~ooOoo~
Yumiko frowned as she looked around the watchers gallery for the courts. They were uncharacteristically packed for this quarter’s meeting. She turned to her old friend Tsukiko.
“Is there something happening?”
The tori-youkai stared at the usagi-youkai shocked. “Where have you been? Hiding under a rock somewhere?” she screeched high enough for the predator youkais nearby to turn and frown disapprovingly. The tori ignored them and continued more softly. “Sesshoumaru-sama is presenting his chosen.”
Yumiko blinked. “Wait a sec, the Ice Lord is taking a mate? Who?”
Tsukiko looked around warily before speaking very quietly. “I heard he’s chosen a ningen.”
That shocked Yumiko. The daiyoukai’s disdain of weak humans was well known. Oh, he no longer hated them as he once had, but to mate one? Just like his father? Mattaki-sama’s infatuation with Izayoi-hime and his eventual death was very well known. Sesshoumaru-sama had been infuriated by his father’s actions, the insult made towards his own dam. After he became the Western Lord, he spent centuries rebuilding his domain – his power and strength – practically on his own since many of the Western Lands old allies had broken ties, seeing Mattaki-sama as weak for honouring a weak ningen-hime.
“Are you sure?” she hissed.
Tsukino nodded. “I saw Katsuro-sama and Touga-sama with a pretty young ningen female. She did not look infatuated with them, just amused. And they treated her gently. I think she’s the one. She hasn’t stepped out of the Western Wing since she arrived.” The tori looked sad. “I think he’s crazy to think she can fight the likes of Akari and Hasu.”
The usagi frowned. “Maybe he’s not,” she muttered. “I can’t see him choosing a weak female. She might be really strong.”
“Only a female from a taijiya clan would have the training and skill to fight and win against a youkai,” Tsukino conceded. “But I haven’t heard of anything like that.”
“We just have to wait and see I guess. But I think she’s going to surprise us. Sesshoumaru-sama would not choose anyone who was weak to be his.”
~o~
Akari of the Southern Lands frowned as her sharp ears caught traces of rumours and speculation centred around one theme: Sesshoumaru had chosen a human mate. Her blood burned with the fires that were her natural element. She could feel her red hair drifting in the strong currents of heated air. The inu-daiyoukai had insulted her for the last time!
For decades she had pursued him determined to prove she was worthy of his attentions: the strongest and most skilled fighter; the most beautiful and graceful female in the courts; talented, artistic; trained to rule a youkai household, in the old ways… All for naught, because her bastard of a grandsire sent a team of assassins to eliminate Sesshoumaru’s sons; to clear the succession for the heirs she was to bear him. The assassins had failed, Sesshoumaru had found out, and all her hopes of mating him, of uniting South and West, became ashes.
But if she killed the ningen bitch Sesshoumaru would be forced to choose her, if he ever mated. Because she was the only suitable female for him. Because she would kill all others he chose and presented to the courts.
~o~
Hasu of the snow-leopard clans frowned. The kanzashi in her hair tinkled as she turned towards the Western doors. The House of the Moon was present in full force. Satori-sama. Touga. Katsuro. Sesshoumaru-sama. And that ningen female. She had to be the one everyone was talking about.
Hasu was genuinely confused. There was nothing special about her. She was short with rather wide hips – very curved but narrow waisted. Her black hair was secured in a modest bun and a single wooden kanzashi with two long tresses in front of each ear. Her face was pretty but not extraordinary. Her blue eyes were uncommon and very wide as she looked around examining all present. She had chosen to wear a rather simple but battle-suitable outfit: a shortened sleeveless pale pink yukata covered with stylized white blossoms on red at the right shoulder, Sesshoumaru-sama’s sigil. It was secured with a darker pink sash at the waist and beneath she wore knee-length skin tight black shorts and calf-high black boots. She bore a sword at her side, a quiver filled with arrows on her back, and knives in boot and thigh sheaths. Hasu was certain there were more blades hidden under her clothes and in the forearm bracers she wore on each arm.
How silly to carry a quiver of arrows with no bow! And what could bow-and-arrows do against a youkai fast enough to evade a bit of wood? She probably had some skill with weapons but Hasu was certain she would not last through the challenges long enough to be challenged by the snow-leopard. Oh Hasu was certain she could kill her rival then and there but it was tradition for the weakest contenders to challenge first. Then the next strongest and so on. It was a demonstration of endurance, skill, and strategy to last long enough to fight the true rivals. The ningen would die long before she would ever faced Hasu. How foolish of Sesshoumaru-sama to select a female so unsuitable to be a daiyoukai’s mate. Akari was the only true rival in her plans to be Sesshoumaru-sama’s mate.
~ooOoo~ooOoo~ooOoo~
TBC…
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AN: I’m trying to keep each chapter around 2K words long.
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