Ko stared at her little dark bare feet contrasting with the snow.
She had managed to make a small fire with the help of the Nintojo and a few dry branches she had found.
The grey sky over her head kept on snowing. She wondered how long would her master take to come back.
They had not long ago seen a village that had been attacked by the son of the Ryukotsusei, the dragon spirit Sesshomaru's father had defeated. That creature, being the spawn of one of the lasts enemies that saw Inu no Taisho alive, was their only hope to find his tomb.
Ko sighed and a small cloud of steam formed in front of her dark lips. Not even her two headed dragon was with her, and she hated being alone. She had spent too much of her life like that.
She didn't hear the villagers until they were a few steps away.
"There it is! The monster!"
She had just looked up when the first arrow hit her little chest. A sharp pain left her breathless as her warm blood soaked her clothes.
She threw herself to the Nintojo and held it aiming at the villagers.
"Stay away!" She yelled with the staff in her hands, with the old man's head pointing at them.
And it was then when she saw their faces...
They were just humans, filled with fear and powerlessness. Their home had been attacked in the middle of the night, most of them surely lost their loved ones. The men furiously tightened the handles of their farming tools and makeshift weapons, with tears in their eyes and their teeth tightly clenched.
They were not assassins. They had only seen in her fangs, her dark marked skin, pointy ears, and slit eyes the predator that with a single capricious move could take away everything they loved and lived for.
They did not deserve to die.
Another arrow penetrated her flesh, this time in her leg, and it was soon joined by a spear that hit her right shoulder.
She let out a groan and turned around, leaving behind her a trail of blood and footprints.
But she was small, and her steps too short.
Followed by the echoes of frantic voices and light of torches, she ran, out of breath, exhaling steam clouds.
Another wooden spear caught her and nailed her left sleeve to a tree, opening her skin too.
She stood petrified as she saw a man swing at her with a hoe against her stomach.
The impact ripped her sleeve off as she fell in the snow. She barely got up to pick up the Nintojo and keep on running. Away from them, away from the instinct to hurt them.
She did not make it far.
They cornered her by the edge of the forest, when she just couldn't take another step. Three arrows stuck in her back, little blood inside her body. Her blurry eyesight raised to the sky.
The snow was so pure and beautiful.
She fell on her knees and looked at the ground. Blood droplets drawing patterns on the earth. Like tiny red and white flowers.
Oh how mad would her Master be at her right now...
Suddenly, a figure plummeted between her and the humans. A bright line snaked from his fingers as he stared at the men with such hate they felt a cold stab pierce them.
His eyes, blood red, seemed black under the green glow.
Sesshomaru-sama... you are back...
"Worthless scum..." He growled as he walked towards them.
"P...please!" Stuttered one of the men.
The daiyokai did not answer. He moved his hand up and whipped down his acidic lash to finish the first villager's life.
"Master!"
Ko's scream stopped him right in time. The whip had hit the ground between the feet of the human, who had fallen to the floor terrified.
Sesshomaru's eyes moved to the side.
"P-please... spare their lives... they thought I was the youkai that attacked their village... it was just a misunderstanding..."
The air stood still as the men shivered and looked at the wounded girl with her back to them.
"...Why?" He softly asked.
She turned around with a childish smile on her face.
"...They were... just afraid of me..."
Sesshomaru looked at her for an eternal instant. Then closed his hand and the whip disappeared. His golden eyes fixed on the humans.
"Leave. Now."
Screaming and tripping, the group left. The white forest was once again in silence.
Ko tore off the arrows from her back and lay against a tree. Her master turned around to see her as she pulled out the rest of the arrows.
She let out a sigh and her pained expression faded from her face. He didn't move from his place and only rested his hand over Tenseiga to see the beings of the underworld slowly crawl on her.
She smiled again.
"...I think I will die, won't I?"
"Yes, you will" He let out roughly.
"When I do... please, do not bring me back."
Sesshomaru's eyes opened slightly wider as he remained silent.
"...I fear no death..." She continued. "I do not yearn for it, but since it has finally come, I do not wish to fight it or deny it..."
She looked at her master with a peaceful expression.
"I have lived a lonely life and never felt close to demons or humans... Youkai only live for their own desires and whims, and humans only think of their fears... And they talk of love... but I've never known such thing..."
Sesshomaru dropped his hand from Tenseiga.
"I do not wish to be a burden to you, my Lord... I know I am of no help anymore, and that my ways only serve to annoy you... Death is nothing but a friend for me. It is better like this, maybe in the other world I will find my peace..."
She smiled widely. A smile that many years later he would find again, in a little human girl with blood on her face as well.
"...I am only worried that I will miss you too much in the afterlife, Master!"
She winced and let her head rest against the trunk of the tree. Her eyes stared at the horizon as the snow stopped falling and the clouds began to break apart.
"It will dawn soon... it'll be a beautiful daybreak..."
Ko grinned.
"It won't be a bad death, just a little cold..." She joked as her little legs sat on the snow.
Sesshomaru walked the few steps that divided them and sat by her side, covering her with silver pelt to keep her childish frame from the cold air.
"M-master..." She stuttered in shock. Had she had enough blood, maybe she would have blushed. He remained silent.
She felt the warmth surround her gently and despite the pain, she felt safe.
"Sesshomaru-sama...?" She let out shyly.
"Hn."
"Could you promise you will remember me after I am gone?"
His eyes rolled down at her and somehow she could almost perceive a sorrow she never imagined her Lord could show.
He looked at her with such openness...
With such pain...
"...Well, aren't you a stupid creature..." He grit. And she didn't miss the almost imperceptible quiver of his voice.
She smiled again, letting her head rest on the soft, warm fur, now stained by her blood.
"...Yes... you are right..."
The birds began to chirp.
"There is... very little I regret..."
She looked up at him. He was staring at the horizon too.
She closed her eyes.
Her breath escaped slowly through her parted lips.
...There is very little I regret...
He looked down and found her lifeless right before the last daybreak she never saw.
Her body turned to dust with the first ray of sun.
He knelt and gathered the small bundle of her clothes -had she always been this tiny, this frail?-, folded them and buried them between the thick roots of the tree.
With the help of his claw he carved her name deep into the bark.
光
He took the Nintojo and turned his back, walking away from the tomb of the little demon child.
A/N: This is in no way related to any of my other Inuyasha fics. It's just a little something I wrote (a long time ago, months and months before The Storyteller) under the prompt of reincarnation. Ko was Rin's past life, and a demon child that never fit among youkai nor humans. She tamed Ah-Un and carried the Nintojo long before Jaken joined Sesshomaru.