Ice and Snow, Mind and Heart

Chapter 48: Entryway

"Oh, how long will this journey last?" Jaken groaned.

They were, once again, on the move with Jaken leading the way up a mountain area while Sesshomaru walked beside A-Un's head. Yuki walked on A-Un's other side, though she was walking beside the dragon's body where Rin was settled on the demon's back, and she glanced at Sesshomaru every so often when he wasn't looking.

He'd been strange – well, stranger than usual. Sometimes, he acted normal and even smiled when she messed around, but other times he'd started acting like she wasn't even there. It was completely disconcerting; and at times, she wasn't sure if she preferred having him insult her lineage. At least that meant he would be speaking to her.

"Hm?"

Yuki looked up at Jaken's questioning hum, and she frowned at the giant, beheaded bird-like demon corpse lying a little ahead of them.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Jaken asked, "what could that be?"

"It's a giant bird!" Rin gasped, and Yuki shook her head.

"No, it's more than that." The half-demon noted, while Jaken ran ahead to peer at the still-bleeding neck of the large bird demon.

"Huh? Ah!" Jaken shrieked, flinching back from what he saw there. "It's been beheaded!"

"..."

Yuki was speechless, incredulous that that was all Jaken had to say and that it had taken the imp demon that long to figure the fact out. Sesshomaru, meanwhile, frowned as he thought: 'There must have been a massive amount of blood, yet the scent has disappeared.'

"I wonder why I couldn't smell it until now, though." Yuki wondered aloud just then, and Sesshomaru glanced at her.

But a small sound and a familiar scent caught both their senses, and Sesshomaru and Yuki turned their eyes behind them just as Kagura spoke from atop higher ground on the mountain: "It seems you were too late getting here, Sesshomaru. This entryway has already opened and closed again."

Yuki raised a brow as Kagura pointedly looked only at the dog demon she'd addressed; apparently, the demoness wasn't going to acknowledge her presence. Rather rude given the trick the wind sorceress had pulled with her sister, Kana, the last time Yuki and Sesshomaru had run into her.

Rin meanwhile quickly ducked for better cover and Jaken snapped: "Kagura!"

He ran over, waving the Staff of Two Heads threateningly as he shouted: "What are you up to, anyway? You've been showing up a lot lately, and I'll have you know Lord Sesshomaru isn't the least bit interested in you!"

Yuki frowned as Jaken spoke. While the imp demon had likely meant Lord Sesshomaru's lack of interest in Kagura's previous deals (which she'd heard about from Jaken), something about the wording had sounded...

Kagura simply smirked, before Yuki tensed and Kagura flinched as Sesshomaru abruptly leapt up beside the wind sorceress.

"Or... maybe he is." Jaken said, sounding defeated and confused as he sweat-dropped just slightly.

Yuki pursed her lips unhappily, feeling an unpleasant twist in her stomach as she watched Sesshomaru demand from Kagura: "The 'entryway'? The entryway to where, exactly?"

Kagura recovered quickly from her shock, her beguiling smile back on her face as she answered calmly: "To the path that leads to the border between this world and the next. Naraku and Inuyasha have already gone through."

Yuki's ears perked up at that and (leaving her petty jealousy – yes, she knew it was petty; didn't make it any less painful - aside for the moment) she repeated questioningly: "Inuyasha's gone too, you say?"