𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘰𝘯 犬夜叉 ♡ ; 𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚔𝚞 𝚡 𝚘𝚌

imperial memorandum

The closer Mei got to Kagura's location, the stiffer the air grew. She looked back at the village entrance, catching glimpse of a few villagers passing back and forth like nothing happened, and turned back around. She wondered who was thie Reiko woman and what business she had with her father. She also wondered what message she was trying to convey about any "ailments" she may have along the way.

And the riddle? About the garden? It all made her head spin. 

Rocks scattered at her feet, bouncing from one direction to the next. Mei's eyes wandered to the makeshift camp that the mercenaries made,only to see the horses were gone but their items were still scattered about. Odd, She thought. But what was even more strange was the man standing close to Kagura. Usually she's on a higher guard than this. Was he a familiar? 

The wind gently picked up around Mei, swaying her hair lazily around her. From what she assumed based on Reiko's words, her smell was lingering in the air. So much, that she even picked up the faint frown in the corners of the strange man's mouth. She clutched the herbs closer to her chest, silencing her heart from pounding through her ears. She didn't feel a threat emitting off him, but there was something about him that made her uneasy.

//

"She smells of him." Sesshomaru stated, eyeing the woman as she walked closer to the two of them. No doubt attractive, but a death sentence loomed over her head the more she stayed around Naraku. He's gathered wind of the destruction he laid in his wake, and although it be a situation he had no care or intention of interfering with, just by a slight glimpse of the woman, he could hypothetically understand why Naraku would go through so much trouble to keep her hidden away. 

"Tell me about it.." Kagura sighed. "She smells more and more of him every day."

Sesshomaru grunted in response, making Kagura's eyes wander up to him for a brief moment. She turned her focus back to Mei, tapping the handle of her fan on her chin.

"So if this witch is supposed to be predicting Mei's death," she began, "Did she mention how someone can sa-" Woosh! The wind whisked across Kagura's face, causing one of her hair pins to fall to the ground. When she looked over in the direction of the abrupt gust, Sesshomaru was gone. Typical impromptu behavior, she thought, but a piece of her felt..oddly sad, nonetheless. 

"Kagura!" Mei exclaimed, panting out of breath as she ran up to her. She still clutched the herbs to her chest as she leaned over, breathing in and out rapidly.

"Kagu-" huff! "Did you see that man? The man next to you?"

Kagura raised her eyebrow in response. "You mean Sesshomaru?"

"Hah! Yes." she rose you, wiping the sweat from her brow. Kagura eyed her suspiciously. If she was so much of a demon, why was she so out of breath from a mere stride?

"He vanished! Into thin air! Who was that?"

Kagura wanted to tell her an honest answer, but knowing how testy Naraku could get, she decided not to.

"He's neither an ally or an enemy. Let's just hurry back. Did you see the herbalist here?' her attempt to change the subject made Mei raise an eyebrow that quickly softened.

"Um, yes. She was a strange woman."

"How so?" Kagura quizzed.

"Nothing out of the ordinary... She mentioned knowing my father..." her voice trailed off as she looked the direction of the mercenary camp. Kagura felt a sense of relief with her ending the conversation. Her face paled momentarily at the remembrance of that day. How tricky this had all gotten.

"Kagura,"Mei's ruby eyes shifted back and forth, almost as if counting something. "Did you happen to keep count of how many horses there were when we originally got here?" Kagura raised her eyebrows at her question. Without answering, she looked over the direction of the camp to see the amount of horses doubled. 

Shit! She thought.

"Mei," Kagura interrupted, standing to her feet. She held the fan to her face, shielding any concerns she may have displayed on her face. 

"We should go." Mei was relieved that Kagura took notice. Despite the two of them being demons who both were vested in enough combat to get by, they were still women. And it wasn't an unknown fact to neither demon or human what mercenaries did to women.

"You smell them." Mei's words were more of a matter-of-fact statement than a question. Her senses felt... Peaked? They weren't this precise before she entered the village. Was it the woman? Either way, she could smell that these mercenaries weren't just human. There was demon blood mixed in between the humans. The leader, perhaps?

"Nevermind that." Kagura interjected, shifting on her heel to turn back into the forest. "Best thing for us to do is to start moving."

Mei silently nodded in agreement, following behind Kagura back into the forest. Before they disappeared into the trees, she caught a glimpse of a man. His hair was slicked back into a ponytail, a scarf wrapped around his head to substitute a headband. His skin was pale, deathly pale. And his eyes were a deep purplish-red. He bore a scar across his face that extended across his cheek down to his jaw. There was something about the man that seemed...oddly familiar. But she couldn't put her finger on it. 

The man was hitching up his horse, taking out weapons and filling the adjacent sacks with miscellaneous things that Mei couldn't see from where she was standing. As she watched, the wind picked up again, causing both her and the stranger's hair to sway lazily within its motions. 

It was then, that she saw it. The family crest! All imperial soldiers had to bare the marking of their sworn military family on the side or back of their neck and there it was. On the side of his neck bore the Imperial branding. He was an imperial soldier to her father! Was it-? Was he-?

"Tetsuo!" she thought she yelled out his name, but instead of quivering whisper escaped her lips. Goose pimples littered the back of her neck as she called his name. She didn't know what she was thinking, but something in her told her to speak his name. And despite the distance, it must have worked. 

His fatigued eyes wandered towards Mei's direction, only to jolt back to life at the mere glimpse of her. It wasn't fear in his eyes, it was an alarming stare. Like something hadn't gone as planned and now he was looking at his mistake in the flesh. 

Mei couldn't move. They both stared at eachother, knowing full well the other person was supposed to be dead. Something was off with all of this, and Mei knew deep inside that there was something additional to the story that she wasn't getting. Everyone was supposed to have died that day. Everyone. Her father, his men, and her mother, all gone. And here it was, his Second hand Man, walking in the flesh. 

"Tetsu-!"

"Mei, what are you doing?" Kagura jogged back, reaching for her arm to pull her back towards the castle. 

"What are you stopping for? We-" Kagura looked the direction of Mei's tearful eyes, only for it to be returned by Tetsuo's pained glare.

"Oh no." Kagura didn't like any of this. She knew that she had to tell Naraku as soon as possible.

"Mei," Kagura instructed, pulling her arm towards her, "We need to go. Now." She hooked Mei's arm into hers, jerking her out of his line of sight.

"Its not safe." Kagura made up the quickest lie she could, but it was only a half lie. Things were unraveling and she needed to get back-

Neiiiiiiiiiigh!

A magnificently large black horse jumped from the thickets of bushes, standing in front of the girls' direction. Kagura's heart sunk to her feet as she looked up at the face of its rider.

"Kuro!" Mei shook herself free of Kagura's grasp, tears in her eyes as she cradled his muzzle in her arms.

"I thought you were dead!" the memories came flooding back, more rapidly than before. This was her father's horse! But atop wasn't Kenji. It was-

"Hide." Kagura seethed through her teeth.

"My," Hide arrogantly grinned, his sharpened fangs protruding from his bottom lip. 

"Long time no see, Kagura."