Infuriated, the furry bird coughed out two more spinning blades before disappearing in tendrils of black vines. Wolf-Meioshi growled deeply before dodging the blades, but something managed to grab at their ankle and stopped them from moving forward. The vines snaked their way up Wolf-Meioshi's legs and kept her still just enough for the bird to regain control of the spinning teeth blades. With their capture, the furry bird was able to hit them by one of the blades across the hinoki tree roots and collar bone. This brought Meioshi significant pain but angered the wolf more. The black vines reformed into the bird and all of the spinning blades of teeth returned to its wide mouth. The blood it tasted made its fur and feather glow red, and the inside of its mouth stopped rotating and became still.
The hills that were once lit with divine flames began to shift and crackle. They were moving almost like the waves of the sea! The vines that the bird produced undulated and pulsed like snakes or eels. Once the bird finished digesting Meioshi's blood, it engulfed itself in a tornado of tendrils only further angering the wolf and landed on the crater it slept on in human form. It was a replica of Meioshi with red crimson eyes instead of the charming hazel, crimson red lipstick instead of her natural rose pink, and feathery lashes with green eyeliner along the top eyelid instead of the black and red wings. It wore a rather revealing, black kimono with vines holding the upper part together, and its hair was tied in a high ponytail with more vines pinning it up and surrounding the length of her hair in a set of spirals to make the waves turn to curls at the very end of the straight-boned ponytail. Feather and vine-like tassels were attached to rings on her ears similar to the tassels of Meioshi's head armor. A red stone was wedged into her upper bosom to mirror the blue stone of the wolf's eye. The skirt of the bird's kimono was made from black feathers with a small fur sash acting as a belt across the waist. The deadly beauty that the bird became was almost breath-taking.
"This woman is bound to me!" the wolf declared, baring its fangs and narrowing its eyes at Bird-Meioshi. "You cannot have her!"
The bird glared at the wolf and said with unusual patience, "Correction, she used to be."
Widening her eyes to make them glow a deadly, deeper red, the bird shot sticky vines into Meioshi's mouth and entered Meioshi's mind to fight with the wolf internally. Meioshi's eyes went fully white. No hazel, no blue, and no red could be seen for her eye color. She was choking and shaking from the intense conflict of the two entities fighting for control. Blood was coming out of her mouth and black vines were appearing in place of blood veins on her arms and hips. Simultaneously, the tree roots were hardening and struggling to repair themselves from the cut to keep the blood bond intact. Vines, however, were infecting the roots and seeping into the cut. Satisfied with its joint blood pact, the bird called its vines back and watched Meioshi drop to the ground. In its holding prison, the wolf was covered in vines and severely weakened by the bird's joint dominance over the doctor. It was now too disabled to break its own cage. The hope it gained through traveling with Meioshi was brought to almost nothing.
"Why do you wish to take this woman from me?" the wolf asked in a faint voice. It was still within Meioshi but it wasn't as strong as it was before. The wolf seemed far away like a distant memory. It was fading in power. It then asked, "She is mine."
"This woman's power is great. Enough for me to find my master," the bird replied. "If a petty, little thing like you can form a blood pact with her to come here, I can do the same and march even further than you ever could. To begin my blood pact..."
________________________________________
Vines were rising from the earth as Sesshomaru, Jaken, and the green pheasant walked through the phantom village. They were watching the same memory repeat itself enough to where they knew when they would hear the archers release the cloud of arrows above them. Following the dark cloud would be a cloud of fire as flaming arrows descended upon them. It made Jaken wonder what memory would play out next, but Sesshomaru was less interested in the wolf's memory and more focused on its intentions. It seemed to have a clear goal in mind that it simply wasn't revealing yet. Whether that was due to its lack of trust or search for independence was questionable. Though the pheasant was unsure of Sesshomaru's choice in clue when he walked through the village, he was pleasantly surprised at the cleverness of the western lord. Choosing a flaming arrow was quite ingenious! He caught the arrow between his fingers with such ease as well! It was actually impressive!
Seeing the village shifting and fading startled the pheasant and made him snap his head behind him. When he did, he saw the black vines following them into the village and crawling on the front gate. They grabbed at ghosts and buildings before the village was engulfed in a strong light and a burst of wind blew everyone back to the brush in a violent turn of events. Landing in its nest, the pheasant was shocked to see hills emerging from the ground and pulsating with life. He stepped on the ground with some suspicion and flew back up into his nest at his discovery. The ground felt more alive! It was warm and soft like animal skin, but the hills were moving like the waves of the sea. Winds were blowing about in between what felt like slow or sleeping breaths. The pheasant looked into his nest again and saw that it was being made with vines. The brush was covered in them. The vines were taking root.
"The original bond has been severed!" the pheasant proclaimed.
"Did the doctor complete her mission?" Jaken questioned, looking around to see the vines taking over.
"No! Another guardian beast is adding itself to the blood pact!" the pheasant replied, hopping over a whipping vine. "Lady Meioshi's time's been cut in half! Accepting a dual pact could kill her. Why didn't she stop it?"
Quietly looking up into the sky, Sesshomaru could see that the vines were still reaching out across the violet and orange expanse. It was a large mass of smaller vines acting as a tidal wave. Not covering the sun entirely but blocking it from shedding more light. These vines were different. They were looking for something here. Jaken looked to his lord with some concern and spotted the hunting vine.
He then asked, "What is that, my lord? Are these vines coming from the same creature making the pact with the doctor?"
"The sun is growing brighter," Sesshomaru replied.
From the sound of his voice, the vine stopped and turned to him. It was waiting. When Sesshomaru said no more, the vine slowly crept over to his direction until it was in his face. A large green leaf about his height and width faced him and uncurled from its resting place on the flying vine. It glimmered brilliantly to show him... nothing. This confused him at first until the leaf stopped glowing and opened a set of large jaws along the seam of the leaf's stem. Before Jaken or the pheasant could say a word, the vine ate Sesshomaru and another smaller leaf whipped its tongue out to swallow Jaken whole!
___________________________________________
"These two won't be needed."
Sesshomaru and Jaken were shot out of a portal the bird made and revisited by the sea of hills. The scent of the living world had returned to their senses, but the danger of the Blood Oath's Circle still lingered. They didn't see Meioshi being wrapped up in vines behind them, but they did see Meioshi standing before them in attire that conflicted their view of the doctor prior to the confrontation now. Jaken was on alert immediately when he came face to face with the red-eyed beauty, but Sesshomaru was less so and instead took the time to observe the interesting kimono the doctor was wearing. At least, the kimono the... imposter was wearing? Well, the imposter was more like a carbon copy, but the demonic power surrounding her was not. He knew a bit of the doctor's powers now. This creature, though wearing Meioshi's face, had different powers.
"Jaken... Sesshomaru..." a familiar voice called from behind them.
They finally turned to see Meioshi fighting back with some struggle. She was pulling herself out of the body bag of vines, but she could barely get out of it. The tightness of her clenched jawbones showed the amount of struggle she was currently having with trying to control two other entities' power over her. The one thing Sesshomaru didn't want to see again was Meioshi being pierced in the throat again. Though her reaction was different, the action was the same and the taking of her blood was the same. Smelling that spot of blood in the air at least reassured him that she was still alive.
"Stand back!" Meioshi ordered.
She rushed to a stand and cut the vines with a small utility knife before quickly tying a vine to the knife and creating a makeshift rope dart as a weapon. This surprised the bird and forced her to dodge and try to grab at it. Unable to really catch the dart, the bird reached into her mouth and pulled out smaller spinning blades of teeth to attack. The rope dart caught the bird's ankle and Meioshi yanked the bird at that point, making her do a split and yelp in surprise, but the bird retaliated by throwing the spinning weapon.
Meioshi side-flipped from the attack before barking another order at the two demons, "Catch her scent before she takes off!"
"What?" Jaken responded with some confusion.
"Just do it!" Meioshi ordered, lunging at the bird to attack again.
The bird merely stretched out to get the knife off her ankle and lifted a hand to control the spinning blade to return to her and strike at Meioshi. Expertly picking herself up from the split position to a standing position without the use of her hands, the bird used the vine as a whip to attack Jaken and fling him back. Sesshomaru confused her a little. He wasn't responsive to the doctor and just watched her. The bird wasn't confused for much longer and struck at Meioshi with the vine whip several times. In a moment of distraction, the bird caught Meioshi's wrists with the vine whip, but Meioshi reacted fast enough to hold the vine whip in her hands and pull it towards her so that the bird would be yanked forward.
"What are you playing at?" the bird demanded, pulling on her whip in a short game of tug war.
"God dammit! Just get her scent already!" Meioshi ordered, shouting at Sesshomaru.
"... sweet lemon..." Sesshomaru responded.
"Thank you! Was that too much to ask you, O great flying lord?" Meioshi remarked, rolling her eyes before yanking the whip back again and using it as her weapon to force the bird to let go. "I accept the bond!"