His Most Precious Girl

Ch. 1

If someone asked what the greatest high school in Tokyo was, everyone would agree it had to be Eclipse Gakuen. If someone asked who the top students in that school were, anyone who knew anything about high schools would reply unanimously, that those were Hisakata Sesshoumaru and Tsukikage Rin.

Sesshoumaru was the intelligent and handsome son of the school's number one donor, Her Lady Hara Sessaika. Rin was Lady Hara's adopted daughter. She was trendy, posh, perfectly charismatic, and beautiful to a fault. Never let it be said that Rin was a hard worker or an honor roll student—she wasn't. She preferred shopping to studying, makeup to textbooks, gossip parties to study groups. Then why was she a considered a top student? Quite simply, there was no other young lady quite as accomplished as her. She could sing pop music like an idol but could deliver an aria just as well. She could draw in an entire ballroom with her tango but could also perform a pas de deux. Not to mention, of course, her considerable talent in calligraphy, flower arrangements, tea ceremonies, and traditional dancing.

If anything could describe her, it was that she was naturally gifted. Rin had no compunctions about showing off this fact either. She repeatedly placed in the top three in her class by just attending on testing days. She would organize school culture festivals with an ease that could only be the result of social talent. She was the perfect example of the kind of woman Sesshoumaru disliked with a fervor.

It wasn't always like this though. Rin could recall quite clearly what had brought about the change in her. When she was a mere orphan of five years, the matron in her orphanage had presented her, like a slab of meat on sale, to a tastefully dressed, elegant woman whom she would later come to admire greatly. The Lady Hara had taken one look at her and signed the paperwork. Lady Hara had the amazing skill of judging people accurately on a first meeting.

The now nineteen-year-old Rin traced the edges of her silk kimono absent-mindedly as she continued to recall the past events. She had been scared at that time. Lady Hara, with her overbearing elegance and beauty so stunning that it hurt to stare at for too long, the grand mansion she'd arrived in filled with servants, and the finely designed interior of her new bedroom complete with the finest furniture money could buy intimidated the young Rin. She was scared of the tutors who glared at her in disappointment when she failed to walk—no, glide—with a book on her head. She was nervous when it was time to eat because the maids had taken to scrutinizing her every action. In those first few weeks, Rin had wanted to run away from the majestic manor of a prison she'd found herself deposited in.

That was when Sesshoumaru arrived. He was Lady Hara's one and only child—the heir of the great Hara legacy that controlled the entertainment world from coast to international coast. He was also the product of Lady Hara's failed marriage to Lord Inutaisho, which had been neatly broken off when a certain maid had gotten rather round and heavy with Inutaisho's child.

He was under a lot more pressure than Rin was. While Rin was widely regarded as Lady Hara's pet philanthropy project, Sesshoumaru was the actual heir. The scrutiny on Rin dissipated rather quickly. Out of curiosity and sympathy for her fellow sufferer, Rin had crept into Sesshoumaru's practice room. He was a boy one year older than her, with long pale hair tied into a high ponytail and intent golden eyes.

"Rin-sama, it is time," a maid announced politely. The adult Rin neatly gathered her skirts around her and walked towards the screen door. If she had turned around, Rin would have seen the maid gazing reverently at her effortless grace and elegant bearing. But Rin didn't. Her mind was wandering in the memories from over a decade ago.

The child Sesshoumaru was only in his hakama, his thin but muscled torso glistening with perspiration. If it were not for his shear stubborn-minded pride, Rin was sure he would be buckled over and sagging by now. But the young lord struggled to maintain a noble posture, his cherubic face that was still slightly round with baby fat focused and determined. Again and again, he dashed at the instructor with his katana, only to be bounced back. But it wasn't a repeated effort. Rin noticed after a few charges that the "pretty" young lord always altered his attacks slightly with each new thrust, even as his growing arms strained with the weight of the metal sword.

It was only a full half hour after the instructor had gone for the day that Sesshoumaru stopped practicing. He fainted. Alarmed, Rin rushed to his side, tripping over her cumbersome wooden shoes and wide sleeves several times before reaching him. By then, he had come to again, watching with a mixture of adult disdain and childlike amusement at her stumbling figure. It was by mutual agreement that Rin didn't call for help. She couldn't make herself do it. The pride that emanated from his boyish body was too powerful for her to even consider calling a servant to help the young lord up. The two children struggled and stumbled their way into Sesshoumaru's bedroom. There, Rin carefully bandaged his scratches and cuts.

"I don't understand why you were using a katana! It's too heavy and you got cut by it! Isn't a bamboo sword better?" Rin asked as she cleaned out a particularly deep cut in his leg.

Sesshoumaru gave her a flat glare before calmly and condescendingly replying, "Shinai are for those who can afford to fail. I'm a lord. I have too much responsibility to fail."

"But, isn't it hard?"

"I like it. I can become stronger this way, stronger, faster, better."

The adult Rin chuckled. She was sure that Sesshoumaru's womanizing gift had manifested at that moment in his young life.

When he'd said those words, the ambition in his tone set his eyes glowing and his body, weary with fatigue, seemed much sturdier and stronger than before. His entire being seemed to sparkle. Rin was too young back then to understand the implications of her admiring gaze and deep blush when she saw him like that. She was too innocent to understand the danger in her silly grin whenever she recalled his bearing that night in his bedroom.

"Then I'll become stronger, faster, and better with you!" Rin had proclaimed in a moment of excitement and inspiration.

The young Sesshoumaru nodded at her, a pleased grin on his full lips, before he promptly erased it and gave a more lordly form of approval.