Demon Childhood: A Sesshomaru fic
A/N: I was watching the episode where Rin first appeared and had to wonder
why Sesshomaru was kind enough to save her life. Yes, Rin had fed and
watered him, but that didn't mean he had to like her. The other thing I noticed was how Fluffy seemed concerned about the bruises she got from the
villagers. Why should he care? And this fic popped into existence. ^^
*****
It was the darkest of nights now that the moon had shifted into its new phase. A perfect time to finally find some food.
He was swift even for a child of only five years. Birds and small animals scurried away when they heard him coming, diving for cover in the safety of their nests or burrows. Every once in a while he could see a demon, eyes glowing in the darkness of the woods, as he sped past. But he knew he was too quick for them, even though he was just a pup.
When he saw the river and gardens of the village, he dug his heels into the dirt to slow down until he stopped near the bank of the water. He looked down into the water and could see the fat little fish wriggling against the current in a desperate bid to return to safer waters. He hadn't eaten in days and now the sight of such tasty morsels made his empty stomach rumble.
Fast as lightening, he nabbed a particularly chubby one from the water. He struggled to hold the slimy creature in his little hands, missing every time he tried to bite it with sharp little teeth. Needlelike fingernails dug into the fish's armor and through its gills.
A twig snapped from behind him. He jumped up but wasn't quick enough to dodge the huge wooden pole coming down on his head. He cried out in pain and desperately tried to protect himself. A torch was held up to reveal the boy cringing on the ground. But he was no human boy; anyone smart enough could see that. Two sets of violet streaks and a purple moon adorned his face, framed by short silver hair pulled back into a ponytail. He glared up at the villagers with bright yellow eyes filled with tears, hate, and fear. Not even three feet tall, there was no way he could possibly defend himself, and they all knew it.
A large chubby woman kicked at him hard and he bit his tongue. Blood streamed down his lips. He yelled, "Stop it!" but they only kicked harder.
"You shouldn't be stealing from us, you demon spawn!" shouted the man who had hit him with the staff. "We take you and your bitch mother in, and this is what you give us in return?!" He swung down the pole again on the boy's legs. "You're lucky you're the son of the dog demon, Sesshomaru!"
Sesshomaru glared at them, red creeping into his eyes, blood staining his simple clothes. But he said nothing. They didn't deserve the honor of hearing what he had to say. After a few more minutes of "discipline", they allowed him to run home. He left the fish.
His little house under the bridge was simple, but it was home. His mother didn't have to turn around and see to know what had happened. She, too, was a dog demon; she could smell the blood and broken skin mingled with the scent of the other villagers. "Did they break any bones, child?"
Sesshomaru sat down next to his beautiful mother on a ratty pillow. "No, Mama."
She looked down at him with her bright yellow eyes. She was certainly a sight to behold with her pale skin marked with the same symbols as her son and dark black hair. A large white pelt of some fox demon or another hung over her shoulder. Even the villagers said so (not in polite public, of course), and her herbal skills were unmatched. "You didn't fight back?"
Her son hung his head in shame, desperately trying to hold back the tears that the pain and humiliation brought to his eyes. "No, Mama."
Kimi didn't show it, but Sesshomaru knew how disappointed she was in him. She only took off his shirt and began to doctor his wounds. The medicine stung and burned like fire, but without it he risked illness. "Why didn't you fight them?" Kimi asked while applying a bandage to his shoulder.
"They're so much bigger than me, and they use weapons. I...I'm too little."
"Stop that," she said sternly. "If your father heard that, he wouldn't tolerate it. Size and weapons have nothing to do with it."
"But-OW!!" He looked down at the bruise on his chest where the fat woman had kicked him. His mother had rubbed a red paste on it and it burned fiercely. "That hurts, Mama."
"Good. That means it's working."
"Mama?"
"Yes, Sesshomaru?"
"Why...why everyone hate us?"
Kimi looked down sadly at her son. He was the son of a powerful demon and would be even stronger someday...and yet, he seemed so helpless to the outside world. "Because you aren't like them. Humans fear things that are new and different, and despise things they know can hurt them. The villagers know that someday you will inherit your father's powers and will rule over them all, and they fear you."
"I don't understand, Mama."
She gave him a kind smile and picked him up in her loving arms. "Not yet, you don't. But you will...someday." She put him on his little straw bed and pulled the covers up close. She pulled off her white fur skin and wrapped it around him for warmth. "Someday you will. Now rest."
He listened to her grind the herbs into a healing paste until the sun began to rise in the sky. By the time he woke, it was evening and time to help Kimi pull up and grind more herbs for some sick villager wishing a cure or another. After that came a meager dinner (He frowned at the sight of the fish) and time for bed again. His dreams were uneasy, filled with flames and the shouting of villagers: "Demon spawn!" "Thief!" "Unholy animal!"
Sesshomaru awoke in the night and found that his dream was true! The hut was on fire and he could hear the villagers right outside! But where was his mother? With all the smoke and flames, he couldn't even see her.
Managing to keep some of his wits to him, he quickly crawled under his bed and through the secret tunnel that led outside. His wounds screamed under the heat of the flames and he fled into the woods. As fast as a squirrel he climbed up into a tree and watched the only home he had ever known burn to the ground.
Sesshomaru sat up there for several hours, waiting for his mother to come back for him. But she never did. When the villagers had finished pillaging through the remains of the home and taken what items had survived, he finally got down. He knew it was foolishness to call out for her; the villagers would only come back.
And then he saw her, not five feet behind his tree. Her hair was smoking and several spears had been thrust into and through her lovely body. Only the white pelt had been untouched. Horrified, Sesshomaru sniffed gently. Her blood made tears come to his eyes and the smell of death hung in the air. He reached for her with a shaking hand and touched her skin. It was always so warm, like fresh bread, but now it was cold and unloving. He couldn't hold back the tears now. The orphan reached for his mother's pelt, her finest possession, and wrapped it around him, sobbing silently into the soft fur.
"Aw, what you crayon' for, little boy?"
Sesshomaru leapt up, clutching the pelt to his chest. An old withered man with the biggest eyes Sesshomaru had ever seen sat on an equally odd- looking three-eyed cow holding a long hammer. What looked an awful lot like a toad with a hat and staff sat behind him. But what really caught the boy's eyes was the sword in the old man's belt. "Who...who are you?"
"The name's Totosei, and don't forget it!!" With agility betraying his age, Totosei leapt off his steed and right in front of Sesshomaru. He looked down at Kimi and shook his head. "What a pity to see such a pretty lady like that go to waste. But I did always know it would happen eventually."
Furious, Sesshomaru snarled, "Don't talk about Mother like that! What do you want, old timer?!"
"Old timer, eh? Hmph! Maybe I'll just give your father's sword to your little brother instead!" He turned on his heel and started back to the cow.
"Wait!" Sesshomaru ran and grabbed the man by his pants only to find himself being dragged on the ground. "My father's sword? Please, give it to me!"
"Oh, NOW we're polite are we?" Totosei turned his nose up in the air. "HMPH!"
"Please! You know my father? Where is he? And who is this little brother you talk of?"
Totosei turned on him, tapping him on the head with the tip of his hammer. "Well, if ya put it that way...your brother is only a half-brother and only half-demon, your dear old pa's dead, and this sword and demon is to be given to you."
"What?"
"JAKEN!"
The little frog-thing jumped off the cow and ran to them. Sesshomaru could see that the frog-thing was older than he was, but he could look him in the eye! "Yes, Totosei?"
The old man turned back to Sesshomaru. "You father is dead. He sent his servant, Jaken, to watch over and serve you. This sword, the Tenseiga, is also yours."
Shaking, Sesshomaru took the long sword (at least, to a child as young as he it was long) in hand. "What...what is the Tenseiga, sir?"
"A sword."
"I know that!!" the boy fumed. "What does it do?"
"You'll find out, soon enough. I'll tell you when you're older and you've used it a bit." He leaped up onto the cow and waved. "Toodle-pip!" And with one loud smack with the hammer on the beast's rump, he was gone.
Sesshomaru and Jaken were left staring at each other, both equally confused. After a moment of uneasiness, Sesshomaru turned to the village that had both raised and hated him, and then back to his mother's corpse. "Jaken?"
"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru?"
"...Help me bury her."
*****
It was so long ago, and yet Sesshomaru remembered it like yesterday. The smell of the ashes and the burning of the heat on his skin were easy to recall. He fingered the now ancient pelt on his shoulder and thought, I remember, Mother...I remember.
"Where to next, Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken asked. Rin stared up at him with those huge brown eyes and in them, Sesshomaru saw himself.
They stood on the hill that overlooked the burning remains of his home village. Only the burned remains of a tiny hut had been left untouched. Sesshomaru watched the women and men run, screaming in terror and pain.
"Let's go, Jaken."
He began to walk and felt Rin trying to slip her little hand in his. Usually, he forced it away and walked it on, half-wishing she would leave. But something about the softness of it, so much like the skin of Mother, overcame him.
Rin smiled up at him when she felt him accept her hand.
A/N: I was watching the episode where Rin first appeared and had to wonder
why Sesshomaru was kind enough to save her life. Yes, Rin had fed and
watered him, but that didn't mean he had to like her. The other thing I noticed was how Fluffy seemed concerned about the bruises she got from the
villagers. Why should he care? And this fic popped into existence. ^^
*****
It was the darkest of nights now that the moon had shifted into its new phase. A perfect time to finally find some food.
He was swift even for a child of only five years. Birds and small animals scurried away when they heard him coming, diving for cover in the safety of their nests or burrows. Every once in a while he could see a demon, eyes glowing in the darkness of the woods, as he sped past. But he knew he was too quick for them, even though he was just a pup.
When he saw the river and gardens of the village, he dug his heels into the dirt to slow down until he stopped near the bank of the water. He looked down into the water and could see the fat little fish wriggling against the current in a desperate bid to return to safer waters. He hadn't eaten in days and now the sight of such tasty morsels made his empty stomach rumble.
Fast as lightening, he nabbed a particularly chubby one from the water. He struggled to hold the slimy creature in his little hands, missing every time he tried to bite it with sharp little teeth. Needlelike fingernails dug into the fish's armor and through its gills.
A twig snapped from behind him. He jumped up but wasn't quick enough to dodge the huge wooden pole coming down on his head. He cried out in pain and desperately tried to protect himself. A torch was held up to reveal the boy cringing on the ground. But he was no human boy; anyone smart enough could see that. Two sets of violet streaks and a purple moon adorned his face, framed by short silver hair pulled back into a ponytail. He glared up at the villagers with bright yellow eyes filled with tears, hate, and fear. Not even three feet tall, there was no way he could possibly defend himself, and they all knew it.
A large chubby woman kicked at him hard and he bit his tongue. Blood streamed down his lips. He yelled, "Stop it!" but they only kicked harder.
"You shouldn't be stealing from us, you demon spawn!" shouted the man who had hit him with the staff. "We take you and your bitch mother in, and this is what you give us in return?!" He swung down the pole again on the boy's legs. "You're lucky you're the son of the dog demon, Sesshomaru!"
Sesshomaru glared at them, red creeping into his eyes, blood staining his simple clothes. But he said nothing. They didn't deserve the honor of hearing what he had to say. After a few more minutes of "discipline", they allowed him to run home. He left the fish.
His little house under the bridge was simple, but it was home. His mother didn't have to turn around and see to know what had happened. She, too, was a dog demon; she could smell the blood and broken skin mingled with the scent of the other villagers. "Did they break any bones, child?"
Sesshomaru sat down next to his beautiful mother on a ratty pillow. "No, Mama."
She looked down at him with her bright yellow eyes. She was certainly a sight to behold with her pale skin marked with the same symbols as her son and dark black hair. A large white pelt of some fox demon or another hung over her shoulder. Even the villagers said so (not in polite public, of course), and her herbal skills were unmatched. "You didn't fight back?"
Her son hung his head in shame, desperately trying to hold back the tears that the pain and humiliation brought to his eyes. "No, Mama."
Kimi didn't show it, but Sesshomaru knew how disappointed she was in him. She only took off his shirt and began to doctor his wounds. The medicine stung and burned like fire, but without it he risked illness. "Why didn't you fight them?" Kimi asked while applying a bandage to his shoulder.
"They're so much bigger than me, and they use weapons. I...I'm too little."
"Stop that," she said sternly. "If your father heard that, he wouldn't tolerate it. Size and weapons have nothing to do with it."
"But-OW!!" He looked down at the bruise on his chest where the fat woman had kicked him. His mother had rubbed a red paste on it and it burned fiercely. "That hurts, Mama."
"Good. That means it's working."
"Mama?"
"Yes, Sesshomaru?"
"Why...why everyone hate us?"
Kimi looked down sadly at her son. He was the son of a powerful demon and would be even stronger someday...and yet, he seemed so helpless to the outside world. "Because you aren't like them. Humans fear things that are new and different, and despise things they know can hurt them. The villagers know that someday you will inherit your father's powers and will rule over them all, and they fear you."
"I don't understand, Mama."
She gave him a kind smile and picked him up in her loving arms. "Not yet, you don't. But you will...someday." She put him on his little straw bed and pulled the covers up close. She pulled off her white fur skin and wrapped it around him for warmth. "Someday you will. Now rest."
He listened to her grind the herbs into a healing paste until the sun began to rise in the sky. By the time he woke, it was evening and time to help Kimi pull up and grind more herbs for some sick villager wishing a cure or another. After that came a meager dinner (He frowned at the sight of the fish) and time for bed again. His dreams were uneasy, filled with flames and the shouting of villagers: "Demon spawn!" "Thief!" "Unholy animal!"
Sesshomaru awoke in the night and found that his dream was true! The hut was on fire and he could hear the villagers right outside! But where was his mother? With all the smoke and flames, he couldn't even see her.
Managing to keep some of his wits to him, he quickly crawled under his bed and through the secret tunnel that led outside. His wounds screamed under the heat of the flames and he fled into the woods. As fast as a squirrel he climbed up into a tree and watched the only home he had ever known burn to the ground.
Sesshomaru sat up there for several hours, waiting for his mother to come back for him. But she never did. When the villagers had finished pillaging through the remains of the home and taken what items had survived, he finally got down. He knew it was foolishness to call out for her; the villagers would only come back.
And then he saw her, not five feet behind his tree. Her hair was smoking and several spears had been thrust into and through her lovely body. Only the white pelt had been untouched. Horrified, Sesshomaru sniffed gently. Her blood made tears come to his eyes and the smell of death hung in the air. He reached for her with a shaking hand and touched her skin. It was always so warm, like fresh bread, but now it was cold and unloving. He couldn't hold back the tears now. The orphan reached for his mother's pelt, her finest possession, and wrapped it around him, sobbing silently into the soft fur.
"Aw, what you crayon' for, little boy?"
Sesshomaru leapt up, clutching the pelt to his chest. An old withered man with the biggest eyes Sesshomaru had ever seen sat on an equally odd- looking three-eyed cow holding a long hammer. What looked an awful lot like a toad with a hat and staff sat behind him. But what really caught the boy's eyes was the sword in the old man's belt. "Who...who are you?"
"The name's Totosei, and don't forget it!!" With agility betraying his age, Totosei leapt off his steed and right in front of Sesshomaru. He looked down at Kimi and shook his head. "What a pity to see such a pretty lady like that go to waste. But I did always know it would happen eventually."
Furious, Sesshomaru snarled, "Don't talk about Mother like that! What do you want, old timer?!"
"Old timer, eh? Hmph! Maybe I'll just give your father's sword to your little brother instead!" He turned on his heel and started back to the cow.
"Wait!" Sesshomaru ran and grabbed the man by his pants only to find himself being dragged on the ground. "My father's sword? Please, give it to me!"
"Oh, NOW we're polite are we?" Totosei turned his nose up in the air. "HMPH!"
"Please! You know my father? Where is he? And who is this little brother you talk of?"
Totosei turned on him, tapping him on the head with the tip of his hammer. "Well, if ya put it that way...your brother is only a half-brother and only half-demon, your dear old pa's dead, and this sword and demon is to be given to you."
"What?"
"JAKEN!"
The little frog-thing jumped off the cow and ran to them. Sesshomaru could see that the frog-thing was older than he was, but he could look him in the eye! "Yes, Totosei?"
The old man turned back to Sesshomaru. "You father is dead. He sent his servant, Jaken, to watch over and serve you. This sword, the Tenseiga, is also yours."
Shaking, Sesshomaru took the long sword (at least, to a child as young as he it was long) in hand. "What...what is the Tenseiga, sir?"
"A sword."
"I know that!!" the boy fumed. "What does it do?"
"You'll find out, soon enough. I'll tell you when you're older and you've used it a bit." He leaped up onto the cow and waved. "Toodle-pip!" And with one loud smack with the hammer on the beast's rump, he was gone.
Sesshomaru and Jaken were left staring at each other, both equally confused. After a moment of uneasiness, Sesshomaru turned to the village that had both raised and hated him, and then back to his mother's corpse. "Jaken?"
"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru?"
"...Help me bury her."
*****
It was so long ago, and yet Sesshomaru remembered it like yesterday. The smell of the ashes and the burning of the heat on his skin were easy to recall. He fingered the now ancient pelt on his shoulder and thought, I remember, Mother...I remember.
"Where to next, Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken asked. Rin stared up at him with those huge brown eyes and in them, Sesshomaru saw himself.
They stood on the hill that overlooked the burning remains of his home village. Only the burned remains of a tiny hut had been left untouched. Sesshomaru watched the women and men run, screaming in terror and pain.
"Let's go, Jaken."
He began to walk and felt Rin trying to slip her little hand in his. Usually, he forced it away and walked it on, half-wishing she would leave. But something about the softness of it, so much like the skin of Mother, overcame him.
Rin smiled up at him when she felt him accept her hand.