3 The Mating of Serpent and Hound

From night until day, after flying for who knows how long, the clouds gradually dispersed. Looking down, one could vaguely make out a lake that seemed bottomless.

A pleasant fragrance wafted through the air, causing Hanami to relax unconsciously. Her mind felt light and dizzy; the fear of being abducted by Lady Inukimi had completely evaporated, leaving her feeling as though she were floating in a dream.

Before she could even react, she was dropped.

Had Hanami known in advance that she and Sesshomaru would be dumped by Inukimi into a desolate, uninhabited barrier, she wouldn't have dared to utter a single sarcastic or "tea-flavored" remark to him, not even if she had eight hundred lives to spare.

Watching helplessly as Lady Inukimi left behind the words, "I shall return to fetch you in a hundred years," and then, with a flick of her sleeves, stepping onto auspicious clouds and departing without a hint of reluctance—her back as resolute and decisive as could be—Hanami completely broke down.

Could she really survive under Sesshomaru’s hand for a hundred years?!

Hanami, who had always known how to bend and stretch as the situation required, glanced at the white dog beside her, her heart trembling. Even in his beast form, the arrogance and murderous intent radiating from him were palpable.

Acting with immediate resolve, Hanami slid to her knees in a standard *dogeza*, slamming her head against the soft grass with sincere earnestness.

"It is this lowly one who failed to recognize your greatness," she muttered frantically. "You are a Great Demon of immense magnanimity; please, spare this dim-witted wretch. I was wrong, I was truly wrong. I shouldn't have spoken so rudely."

She muttered for a long time, but there was no response.

Hanami lifted her head tentatively, her sycophantic expression freezing. Where—where was the dog?!

Very well. Before her lay nothing but empty space. Sesshomaru had vanished long ago.

"..." Truly worthy of being a dog demon; he really was quite "dog-like."

*Hoo—*

With the threat gone, Hanami let out a sigh of relief. It was a miracle she hadn't been whipped to death by him; as for traveling with Sesshomaru? No, no, no, she didn't dare. She was just a weak, pitiful, and helpless princess who couldn't lift a finger—how could she possibly provoke Sesshomaru?

Since he was gone, Hanami stood up and brushed the non-existent dust from her clothes. Everywhere she looked were dense, ancient trees; she confirmed it—this appeared to be a primeval forest.

There was a barrier where she had been dropped. Hanami reached out to touch it, and the barrier felt like a wall—elastic but impossible to break. In other words, she couldn't get out.

Beyond the bushes lay the forest. After a moment of hesitation, she chose to head inside.

As a demon, surely ordinary wild beasts couldn't kill her? Thinking of how Inuyasha’s demonic blood would awaken when he was in danger, Hanami felt that since her own mother could be friends with Inukimi, her own bloodline must be quite decent. Perhaps, when faced with a life-or-death crisis, she would awaken some incredible ultimate move? Filled with unrealistic fantasies, Hanami walked into the depths of the forest.

The air was damp and filled with a pleasant scent. The woods were quiet; sparse sunlight fell upon the damp moss and tree roots. There wasn't a beast or even a small insect to be seen. It felt less like a primeval forest and more like a harmless backyard.

Emerging from the forest, the view, previously obstructed by trees and shrubs, suddenly opened up. A sun-drenched lake came into view, the setting sun shimmering across its surface. An ancient tree stood by the side of the lake, a solitary giant that acted as a forest in itself, blotting out the sky.

As sunlight poured down, vines hung from the branches and trailed to the ground, the light piercing through the dense canopy to land on roots taller than she was.

With the breeze and the sun brushing against her face, Hanami felt bewitched, walking toward the ancient tree involuntarily.

Her speed increased. The power within her body surged forth. Suddenly, a powerful demonic aura erupted. Her running legs transformed into hind limbs, her hands into sharp claws. A cold wind whipped past her cheeks, and fine fur began to cover her face. In the blink of an eye, her human form vanished entirely.

A frosty white fox-demon leaped up, blocking the sun, her claws hooking into the bark as she jumped several times to land on a branch a hundred meters high. Her crimson beast-eyes scanned the surroundings; the fox-demon, though several dozen meters long, looked dainty against the backdrop of the ancient tree.

Leaping quickly to a specific fork in the branch, the fox-demon curled up naturally. Sunlight filtered through the dense leaves, casting golden, shimmering light upon her. Her beast-eyes closed, and her fox tail hung down naturally. The massive beast rested among the branches, her snow-white form standing out starkly against the greenery.

***

Sesshomaru, who had ascended the tree first, had already hidden his presence. His beast form was even more massive than the fox Hanami had become. A purple crescent moon adorned his forehead, and his fluffy tail swayed in the wind.

Ignoring the fox's appearance and making no move to stop her, the white dog crossed his front paws and rested his head upon them. He lifted his eyelids slightly, his cold, calm beast-eyes sweeping over the fox below once before he closed them again and fell into a deep sleep.

The seasons changed over long cycles. From early spring to midsummer, then deep autumn, and finally, the dead of winter. Countless days and nights passed, yet the sky-shrouding ancient tree remained eternally green, its branches lush and untouched by wind or snow.

Time flowed on. Sunsets and sunrises repeated in an endless loop, appearing unchanged.

The demonic auras of the white fox and the white dog gradually resonated as time passed, their presence fusing with the ancient tree. Their power collided and merged through repeated oscillations.

After several seasonal cycles, the white fox's demonic power finally reached a critical threshold. It dissipated and compressed, becoming increasingly dense. Her already sturdy limbs grew even stronger, and her pure white fur seemed to shimmer with golden light under the sun.

On a snowy morning, the sleeping white fox suddenly erupted with a cold, azure demonic aura. It was like fireflies in summer, flashing and fading, appearing particularly striking amidst the lush green of the ancient tree.

The falling snow froze in mid-air. Everything seemed to be held in stasis. The wind stopped, the snow paused, and the ripples on the lake ceased.

The demonic aura brightened, dimmed, brightened again, and then slowly faded. Suddenly, a storm brewed, a gale rose, and the lake surface rippled. The drifting light snow turned into a fierce blizzard. The ancient tree trembled, its withered leaves fell, and in an instant, new buds sprouted. This cycle repeated.

Finally, in the dead of night, the accumulated power compressed to its limit and exploded. The white fox was shrouded in azure light. In the darkness, the wind died and the trees stood still; everything felt frozen.

Disturbed by the resonance of the other’s aura, the white dog above slowly opened his eyes, a flicker of unclear confusion crossing his crimson-gold beast-eyes. Covered in thick snow, Sesshomaru did not move, merely looking down at the swirling power below.

The blinding aura gradually solidified. The morning light broke through the thick clouds; as the soft orange glow pierced the darkness, the power dissipated. When the light vanished and his gaze fell upon the demon at the center, a flicker of realization dawned in Sesshomaru’s eyes.

Where the fox had been, a giant, pure white anaconda with faint blue markings now coiled.

The lineage of a fox and a snake.

A conversation with his mother flashed through his mind.

*"Sesshomaru, that child is the wife chosen for you."*

*"My path of hegemony does not require such a thing as a wife."*

*"In her, you will find what you seek."*

Find what he sought? A flicker of disdain crossed Sesshomaru’s eyes. His path was one he would carve out himself.

...

As a snake that required hibernation, the breakthrough of her demonic power did not wake Hanami. Instead, because the temperature was too low, she fell into a deep sleep.

Sesshomaru merely glanced at her, closed his eyes, and returned to his deep slumber, beginning to accumulate power for his own transformation.

The snow fell heavier and heavier. Even curled into a circle, she could not change the nature of a snake as a cold-blooded animal; Hanami was literally frozen awake. Her mind was foggy, and the instincts of a beast took over her human reason. Her massive snake head rose, and she flicked her tongue.

Relying on the molecules in the air, she clearly captured a heat source and instinctively climbed toward the warmth. Her belly slid across the accumulated snow, leaving a deep trail as her scales expanded and contracted, friction guiding her up the tree trunk.

She finally stopped beside the white dog; the warmth radiating from him was exactly what a snake needed.

Possessing a massive body longer than that of the white dog, yet far more slender, the anaconda coiled herself around him, wrapping ring after ring around his form. She pressed tightly against his fur, burying her head in his fluffy tail. The long, thick fur completely covered the anaconda, and the warmth allowed her to stop moving.

They were perfectly fused into one.

Sesshomaru, preparing for his own transformation, was not on guard against the aura that had resonated with his own so many times. In other words, he was not disturbed.

The anaconda and the white dog lay intertwined. The figures of the two Great Demons were gradually buried by frost and snow.

...

Decades passed in the blink of an eye. For humans, this might be the end of a lifetime, but for pure-blooded Great Demons, it was merely a single nap.

Sesshomaru’s transformation was even longer than imagined. Because of it, the "underdeveloped" Hanami had also absorbed quite a bit of the leaked demonic aura to fill her own voids.

The time she had expected to be grueling passed in a flash. She awoke to the chill and rebirth of early spring.

The giant snake opened her eyes, her pale blue vertical pupils meeting the head of the white dog. A visible look of confusion appeared on her face as she struggled to move her thick body. She hesitantly lifted her snake head.

Unsurprisingly, she saw a thick, twisted tail. Hanami’s foggy brain cleared instantly. Following her consciousness, the tip of the tail swayed, and she realized with a jolt: she had turned into a snake.

Wasn't she a fox?!

It was a bolt from the blue.

Within her demonic lineage, her father’s bloodline had taken precedence, hence she had become a snake. The sky had fallen.

Did she get kicked out of the "fluffy circle" just by taking a nap? Completely unable to accept that she had changed from something fluffy into a snake, Hanami lowered her head in disappointment. As she moved, her scales rubbed against the white dog's fur.

Wait—

Why was she hog-tying the white dog? Seeing her snake tail coiled ring after ring around him, Hanami, having no memory of what had happened, fell into deep thought.

She understood that her second transformation was in the form of a snake—after all, her father was a snake demon—but...

The position she and Sesshomaru were in... didn't it look wrong no matter how she viewed it?

The white dog's silky fur had been rendered a mess by the binding of her scales.

*Hmm—* There was a sort of "messy beauty" to it (perhaps).

Her beautiful, pale blue tail was currently clinging to his fluffy tail like a desperate fan. Seeing herself in such a pathetic, obsessive state, Hanami’s mouth twitched as she tried to make excuses for herself.

Snakes couldn't control their own body temperature during transformation; once the temperature dropped too low, it would lead to a deep sleep, preventing the transformation from continuing until the following spring.

In short, one had to waste a whole winter. For demons, who valued strength above all else, this was absolutely unacceptable. Although Hanami retained human consciousness, her personality was beginning to lean toward that of a demon, instinctively choosing the situation most beneficial to her.

She didn't really want to be "snuggling" with Sesshomaru, but he was so warm, and he wouldn't wake up—he was a natural hot water bottle.

Her logic was shaky, but her confidence was high.

Possessing a snake's instinctual possessiveness toward its prey, her tail tightened arrogantly around the white dog. Like a predator constricting its catch, or perhaps showing off, she stubbornly squeezed him tighter. Their tails intertwined, and the pale blue tip of her tail swayed in the air.

Arrogant. It was absolutely arrogant.

Hanami (turning her head): "...This tail is beyond saving."

*Go ahead and act out, tail. Sooner or later, Sesshomaru will wake up, see himself wrapped up like this, and chop you off.* She imagined the bloody, cruel scene, then looked at her current, arrogant snake tail.

*As expected of a tail, it has no brains.*

Arguing with her own tail was truly foolish. Hanami turned her head and burrowed into the white dog’s chest—warm, cozy, and soft.

Hanami liked the feeling of Sesshomaru’s tail intertwined with her own. It was a bit like mating, but mostly, it was just because the fluffiness was truly comfortable.