Fairytale Prelude

1498, late-Muromachi Period, Spring, Musashi

Sesshoumaru reached out one more time, searching for the thing at the edge of his senses, but there was nothing. Where had it gone? Was it still there, or simply quiet? Either way, he had other matters to tend to at the moment, and so he cast it from his thoughts.

Jaken scrambled to rejoin his lord on the impending battle field. Sesshoumaru hadn't even considered summoning the bastard half-breed to assist against the returned Panther Tribe, but the imp had, and he now returned with irksome, if not unsurprising, news.

"Forgive me, my lord, I acted on my own and sought out Lord Inuyasha. He may be a hanyou, but he is still your father's son."

"And? Where is he? Is he too cowardly to show himself; or did he refuse to come to his 'brother's' aid?"

"He is under seal, my lord."

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes.

"What?"

"Well..that is.. He lost his heart to a mortal priestess and was caught off guard."

Sesshoumaru glowered.

"That fool…"

"Yes, indeed, a complete fool."

It seemed he would not be punished for acting on his own, and for this much Jaken was relieved, but it did not lessen the danger he knew he was about to face now. He glanced over the mass of gathered demons nearby.

"My lord, if I may ask, who are they?"

Sesshoumaru almost seemed to shrug.

"Father saved them in the first battle."

"I see, then, they are our allies. How wonderful! I was concerned, but now that your honorable father's allies have come, you can go into battle with confidence!"

Sesshoumaru was less than pleased with his vassal's obvious lack of faith in his power, walking over the tiny imp in reprimand before considering again the gathered demons for the battle to come. It was a simple task to break them into platoons, recognizing de facto leaders and the various skills they all brought. Surely, this would be a simple victory. He himself was far stronger than he had been in his previous encounter with the felines, and he did, indeed, have complete confidence.

Pride seemed to truly come before the fall, however. While he was able to drive the panthers back to their territory further west, Sesshoumaru had failed in eradicating them once and for all. He'd underestimated them, been too confident, lost so many of those under his command; and while Jaken praised his master's might, Sesshoumaru turned silently on himself in livid rebuke. It was not a defeat, but neither was this a victory.

At the very least he knew which of his father's allies he could consider in the future and which he could not; Ryoyokan, for instance, was certainly one this Sesshoumaru would never find himself calling upon.

***

Rekkonji resisted the urge to pass a hand across his face as one of his field arms informed him of the disastrous outcome of Sesshoumaru's first military command. The pup was clearly not his father, not yet anyway. The loss of his forces was certainly something to berate, but in the end, he had been successful in driving off the Panthers again. In his home further north, Rekkonji hadn't even heard of their return until his vassal came to him with news of the battle's outcome.

On one hand, it pained his wartime sensibilities, all the waste, and slop; on the other hand, he was pleased it had happened. Sesshoumaru would not learn or improve if he never discovered where he was lacking. Indeed, the loss of men was unfortunate, but it was also true that perfection improvement sacrifice.

As the decades quickly passed, Rekkonji continued to leisurely observe his old friend's pup from afar, sometimes visiting his former lady bitch in her sky castle to exchange stories and information of the goings-on of the other greater demons in different provinces.

As always, the female was a paragon of demon propriety, appropriately interested in her whelp's progress while simultaneously detached enough that none would see either of them as an effective venue of manipulation against the other. In fact, it seemed to him that the female considered Sesshoumaru more of an entertainment than a responsibility. While it made perfect sense to Rekkonji, being more of a solitary creature himself, it was the sort of thing that would have driven something like a wolf lividly insane.

***

1548, late-Muromachi Period, Spring, Musashi

The night was comfortably cool, the breeze just right as it slid through Sesshoumaru's mokomoko and danced through his silvery hair. Behind him, Jaken hopped along to keep up, blessedly silent. They were so close to it, where the nintoujou had indicated, and Sesshoumaru had a feeling that this would be the final grave he would have to inspect to find his father's remains and the sacred fang sword, Tessaiga. One could even dare say that this Sesshoumaru was in a good mood for once.

Voices on the wind, coming from the direction he was moving in; the stench of sweat and filth and polish.

There was a gathering of humans up ahead, a group of samurai judging from the banners and tents the vermin had erected. Unfortunately for them, they had camped directly on the spot Sesshoumaru was looking for. None heard him over their own cheers and hollering as he glided ghost-like into the camp, easily discovering which of the vulgar beings seemed to be considered the 'leader'.

He watched as the creature, with a great effort, ripped the head from a boar with his bare hands, sinking its teeth into a section of flesh like some starved ogre.

'Disgusting creatures.'

Sesshoumaru mused to himself, and he returned the favor it had bestowed on its meal in a single simple motion.

"Move."

He growled at the rest of the now gaping faces, their indignant and enraged cries enjoyable, but only to a point. There was no need to waste time killing them all off, as much as he would enjoy it, they only need flee; but Instead of heeding his order, they took up their arms.

He bounced their leader's head once or twice in his hand, irritation beginning to darken his mood. Perhaps they had not heard him the first time.

"You bastards are in the way. Get lost."

Again, they failed to heed him. No matter, so long as they did not interfere. He was so close to his goal, he could feel it, and he would not allow the mere presence of such vile and lesser beings stay his hand.

"Jaken, the nintoujou."

The imp scuttled forward to obey, brushing the surface dirt from a patch of ground before setting the end of the staff firmly into it. Once again, the female's head cried out, and Sesshoumaru's eye twitched almost imperceptibly as he turned away from the empty location.

"It appears that the tomb we seek is elsewhere. Please accept this one's most humble apologies, my lord."

"Is that so…"

Why did his servant always feel the need to state the obvious? Sesshoumaru was drawn from his considerations of other locations to check by the resurgence of angry cries from the remaining humans.

"What is it, human?" he mocked, "Don't you get it yet?"

"They're demons!"

"Surround them!"

"Exterminate them!"

Sesshoumaru slipped his arms into his sleeves leisurely as he turned away again.

"How barbaric… Jaken, I leave these fools to you."

He would give his often annoying servant this much, he enjoyed eradicating the vulgar pests as much has this Sesshoumaru did. Still, there was elsewhere he needed to be, and he paid little attention to the gleeful cackles of the imp or the agonized screams of the humans as they melted away under the heat of the nintoujou's flames. Instead, he procured a boat from the collection the humans no longer had need of, for his next destination was quite a distance downstream of here and he didn't feel like walking. With A-Un temporarily away, he'd had to find other means of transportation.

As Jaken rowed them along, he let his mind wander, recovering his higher spirits despite yet another failure tonight. There was always the next opportunity, he decided. After all, he was a daiyoukai, gifted with longevity to rival the gods themselves. He could not allow every failure to weigh on his spirit. He had more time than he could fathom to wait, to evolve, to acquire anything he desired.

'But not the fang. I do grow weary of this fruitless hunting. I must have the fang!'

He felt a tickle in the back of his mind; Jaken was getting ideas again. Sure enough, the imp spoke up moments later, ruining his peaceful evening.

"Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"What is it?"

"A-about the tomb… Wouldn't I-Inuyasha know where it is?"

"Inuyasha…"

The hesitation in Jaken's voice only served to worsen the flash of disgust and rage that shot through him. He threw his hand back, sending Jaken headfirst into the river where Sesshoumaru held him under with the base of the nintoujou in punishment.

"You made me think about that hanyou thing…" he growled, ignoring Jaken's pleas for forgiveness. "First of all, he no longer lives, recall? He was sealed away."

"That's just it, my lord! I've heard the seal has been broken!"

"What?"

Sesshoumaru blinked down at his servant as he gurgled through how he'd come to know this.

"I see… How interesting."

'Released, is he? Hmm, but he was only an infant when this Sesshoumaru's honorable father met his end, how would he be privy to such precious information?'

Again, his vassal offered an answer, and a plan. While Sesshoumaru was loathed to recall his father's concubine, he could not discredit the idea that perhaps the old general had confided some future plan to her, and that, by chance, she had told Inuyasha. Jaken's plan involving an oni and demon spirit was certainly a simple and laughable one, beneath Sesshoumaru's own adroitness, but then again the half-breed was a moron. It could work.