Annoying.
That was the only word Sesshoumaru could find to describe his new companions pets servants.
The girl was bad enough. Exuberant and playful as she had never been before he resurrected her, at least Rin had an acceptable amount of respect for him, even if her obsequious prattling was somewhat shrill to his superior ears.
Although he was probably around the same age as Rin -- Sesshoumaru couldn't say for certain, as he didn't actually care -- the boy was another matter altogether. His face, his voice, even his hair that one time that he'd untied his ponytail to wash it at that stream they'd passed -- to Sesshoumaru, everything about the little bastard was aggravatingly reminiscent of his worthless little brother, had he been born a full human. Even his tenacity was of the same pitiful quality as Inu Yasha's, as he saw on three occasions where he deigned to indulge the brat with one of the so-called "sparring sessions" he kept begging for.
Such as now.
Ranma The boy was dragging himself back to his feet, battered and swollen, and smiling as if managing to dodge one of his half-hearted swings -- for no human could possibly survive even one true strike from a youkai of Sesshoumaru's quality -- was something to be proud of, even if taking the full brunt of the follow-up had sent him flying halfway up the hill they were resting by.
Such arrogance was also like Inu Yasha. Obviously a flaw common to mortal blood.
Sesshoumaru watched the child like he was a curious species of insect as he eventually regained his footing and stumbled forward, still smiling like like an idiot. Really, he was annoying enough to make him wish he'd ignored Rin and Tenseiga that day they had wandered across the strangely dressed little corpse.
He had been dead, torn and bleeding on the floor of the path leading away from the forest that Tenseiga had taken Sesshoumaru to recuperate after Inu Yasha Tessaiga had nearly killed him. Unlike the newly resurrected Rin's wounds, there was no faint scent of youki on the claw and fang wounds all over the boy's body; in fact, according to his nose, the source of the brat's wounds wasn't even something nearly as respectably dangerous -- to humans -- as wolves.
Really, it was as though he couldn't even die with dignity.
Still, Tenseiga seemed insistent and even Rin, wary as she was of her fellow humans, appeared to be somewhat distraught by the tiny corpse. Perhaps it reminded her of her mortal family, wherever they might be. More likely a dead pet.
Whatever the case, it had seemed unnecessary to ignore the desires of his two most recent benefactors servants over such a trivial matter. If nothing else, he might at least be able to reveal how even a human child could possibly be mauled to death by *housecats* so far from what his species tried to pass off as civilization.
And so it was done. A single swing of Tenseiga and the pall-bearers to the next world were gone and the boy was back in this one, whole and unharmed. The one time that Sesshoumaru had attempted to ask him about the damn cats merely resulted in five minutes of reflexive screaming before he calmed down and revealed that he was completely unable to remember anything but his name and his mortal "Art." This was but a taste of the aggravation this brat would engender within the great Sesshoumaru in the passing days.
The brat's tiny footsteps grew steadier until he was running faster than most of the full-grown humans that had been fool enough to face the great Sesshoumaru. Faster than most humans, but still sluggish to the white haired youkai. The fact that he was running *towards* his ancient opponent was proof that his foolishness was equal to his speed. Does that mean that the mortal is a credit to his species?
The wind gusting from the West caused the daiyoukai to turn his head towards it, sniffing deeply at the unexpected information it carried. Seeing a rare opportunity, the boy covered the remaining distance with a small leap in the hope of catching his savior off guard.
A single swat from Sesshoumaru's remaining arm, carefully controlled to avoid tearing the child in half, aborted the boy's jump kick by driving him straight into the ground, where a light tap from the youkai's foot sent the alleged "martial artist" rolling up to where Rin was indiscriminately cheering them on, and continuing for another five meters with a tiny green youkai who had been too busy jeering the boy to get out of the way in time.
Seeing the lump of mortal twitching as though it was going try and stand again, Sesshoumaru closed the distance in an instant and rested his foot upon the back of his newest acquisition, driving him back into gravity's grassy bosom and Jaken's grassy spine. Rin's cheering died down as she noticed that her new lord was staring at the sunset, with his head tilted back slightly to scent the air.
"Enough." That one word took the fight out of Ranma; every time Sesshoumaru said it, further attempts to spar just resulted in a light burst of poison, followed by waking up nauseous and bloody on A-Un's back late the next day. "We will not waste anymore time today. Rin, Boy -- eat and rest on A-Un's back. We leave now, to see what my foolish brother has done to Tessaiga."
And to see why that mongrel smells the same as myself and our father.
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(Posted Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:43)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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