Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha
A/N: Just a playful attempt to see how hopeless it would be as Sesshomaru went for the human pursuit. (^_^) (some OOC may ensue because this is a romance wherein the lord submitted to his whim to appease the little human girl.)
In all of his elegance - speaking of fashion - that Sesshomaru might have been, the people who knew him never understood why he never provided his little cute Rin a pair of shoes - unless he didn't care about her, which was known not to be the case.
Why then, why no shoes!
Of course, there would always be a reason for everything. And there was a traumatizing incidence that led to the reason why Rin never wore shoes.
Naturally, it was all Sesshomaru's fault!
To be retrospective of Sesshomaru's background that lead to Rin's traumatizing incidence, it would be necessary to know that he was, after all that was said and done, Lord of The Western Land. Contrary to how rich that title made him sound, being Lord of The Western Land didn't mean much in term of material possession - money.
Though, that wasn't so much traumatizing to Rin. Rin had practically been money-less since young, and was so used to being broke that Sesshomaru seemed really rich to her, not knowing that he didn't have one cent to save his life.
But he just looked rich, and Rin had always thought him so.
As the case was, Sesshomaru only possessed swords of several kinds through out his life, but nothing else. And at that, he couldn't afford shoes for Rin - the human way.
Never fear! He had other effective ways - fangs, claws, and swords - to afford things when needed. But beside power, he never really needed anything before Rin came along. Only on rare occasions like one evening when he felt the urge for a romantic boat ride with Jaken that he absolutely had to have a boat; even though he could very well glide across the lake with the amount of time that would only equal half of the time it would take for a boat ride. So he obtained the boat by killing a whole army of men; of course it was their fault for not giving him the boat for free. It was even more thrilling afterward, that boat ride was. He needed to flex his claw muscles on those stubborn army men, because after so long not using those muscles, they became restless.
After Rin joined him, Sesshomaru found it necessary to put these unconventional methods to use.
So, one day he brought to her a new kimono in colors of orange and white arranged in a checker-board pattern with random green circles scattering here and there. It was brightly pleasing to her eyes, and she accepted it with an appreciative smile, a smile which Sesshomaru so loved.
Yet, something was still missing. There should be something else adorning her pretty little form. No, it wasn't earrings, or bracelet, or any sort like that. Rin was already too cute. If she became any cuter, his mind would turn hopelessly fruity rendering him dysfunctional in his pursuit for power and respect.
After gazing at her with his eyes slanted showing obvious curiosity, Sesshomaru finally realized that Rin needed shoes.
And so, naturally, using his unorthodox methods of obtaining things while traveling through a human village, he gave the shoemaker one swift slash across the throat and took the pair of shoes right off the sales table and handed them to Rin. Sesshomaru growled at the shoemaker while performing that deadly act because the shoemaker had refused to give the shoes for free. That fool brought in on himself.
"GROWLL!"
Then, Sesshomaru immediately turned toward Rin to hand her the shoes. He said gently, with the most pleasant tone like he was a totally different person from the one who just committed the vicious murder, "Here, put these on, Rin."
The smile that he so loved and expected from Rin with the gift of those shoes was completely gone from her face. She stood immobilized with her one foot still in the air. Her complexion turned ghostly white, and her eyes were widened forgetting all about the fact that human eyes should blink sometimes.
Rin was traumatized!
"Rin!" He called her.
No answer.
"Rin!" He moved closer to her and placed his hand on her head, "Rin, what is it?"
No answer from her. Her soul just seemed like it had left her body and gone poofing into thin air.
Sesshomaru just stood looking at her dumbfounded thinking she was sick or something. And he was right; she was sick, sick at the sight of his heartless murder.
Jaken knocked on her back, "Rin, what's wrong with you, little imp? Don't you hear your Lord calling you?"
"Hah!" Being knocked and almost fell forward, Rin came back to life only after getting caught into Sesshomaru's arms as he made sure she wouldn't fall all the way to the ground. She looked at her lord and showed the worst terror imaginable that could be expressed in her happy eyes.
Then, she broke free from his arms, ran away into the woods somewhere, and never came back.
The terror that Sesshomaru saw in her Rin's eyes sent a unpleasant shiver through his spine. It was the most awful sight he had ever witnessed. 'What is wrong with her?' He thought about her weird action, and was honestly clueless about what was wrong with his little Rin.
Sesshomaru had no idea that his heartless murder was upsetting Rin. To him, in his demon way, that murder was nothing!
As far as Rin could run with her two short frail human legs, she couldn't elude the boundary of his sense's reach. He found her slumping down with her back against a tree and her hands hiding her face. Then, Sesshomaru smelled tears.
Of coure, his Rin's tear was also the most unpleasant smell that had ever reached his nose.
And, what reached his ears was the most unpleasant sound he had ever heard.
Rim mumbled, "Mr. Shoemaker. I'm sorry. I didn't know that the beautiful person I followed is a bandit. I didn't know he's evil just like the bandits who had killed my family. I'm sorry. It was only for a my shoes that you had been killed. I can't save you. But I'll pray that your soul will go to heaven."
Sesshomaru felt disgusted inside at Rin's words.
In her eyes, he was a BANDIT!
And even if he was unwilling to see it her way, he had to admit that he was robbing that shoemaker in a very heartless way. He could have just scare the shoemaker into giving the pair of shoes. But Sesshomaru was so used to do things the quickest way possible, and killing human was like breathing for him, and Rin would never be a factor of consideration in determining the fashion of his action anyway.
Besides, what was the difference between bullying someone to take their possessions and killing them to take their possessions. They were still robberies in various forms. So, killing the stupid fool to put him out of his human misery was really doing him a favor.
How dare did Rin think of him as a lowly human bandit. He was a demon, a great demon at that. And even if his action mimicked exactly what a bandit would do, he was NO bandit! Absolutely right! He was a great demon! A powerful one! One that would kill a - shoemaker who was way much less important in the scheme of things; not that killing the stupid fool would make the world any better, but it didn't make the world any worse.
Well, the fool shouldn't exist to begin with anyway; if he didn't make shoes, someone else would. And that someone would be much wiser to give the shoes for free.
Who cared about that shoemaker! He was like a fragile little cockroach, a bug, a butterfly, a nameless thing; a thing that Sesshmaru just went out of his way to kill for no greater cause but only to cause painful feeling for Rin.
For his case, he didn't know that bandits had killed her family. He didn't know that his action had hurt her so much.
That human girl!
Why did she care so much for that pathetic shoemaker? Her distracting pout was making Sesshomaru's journey into greatness becoming increasingly difficult!
But, difficult or not, they needed to leave. So Sesshomaru approached Rin.
"Rin, what's wrong?" He said it as gently as he could.
Still no answer.
Jaken proceeded to knock on Rin again, but Sesshomaru stomped on Jaken just in time to stop Jaken's trivial pursuit.
Usually, with that disrespectful defiance from anyone, friends, foes, or people he didn't know, he would just cut her neck off with his claws. But really, among his whims, which were few, Rin was the worst. He never cared to think of the reason; he sort of knew why - but it wasn't love or anything - or so he denied.
He would only admit that Rin was just a thing, like a sword, that he carried around - like the Tenseiga. Rin was a possession. By right, he would haul her around to wherever he wanted to, and he would throw her away to the side of the road anytime he wanted to.
But at that moment, he didn't have a wish to dispose of her just yet.
So for his sanity's sake, "Rin, let's go."
Rin didn't move from her spot, nor did she make any movement whatsoever.
Sesshomaru stopped his own trivial pursuit of telling Rin to come along. After he touched her head again to feel for any sickness that might bother her and found none, he stood there for that whole day waiting for her to get over whatever that she needed to get over. She had been like that before, and had gotten over it rather quickly.
Nothing of concern! Maybe, she just needed some rest.
By evening, Sesshomaru lost all whatever little vast amount of patience he had. His journey to build his vast empire couldn't be wasted standing around in the woods waiting for one determinately pouting human little girl.
He crouched down behind her and placed his arm around to scoop her up, "Rin, we should go now."
"Lord Sesshomaru," Rin hiccuped, "I don't want to go with you anymore. I don't think I would be happy seeing you murdering innocent people for what you want anymore."
He didn't scoop her up as he had planned. Instead, he stood up empty handed and said with, again, perfect calmness in his deep gentle voice despite the frustration churning internally at her rejection, "Very well Rin, you'll do as you wish."
"Let's go Jaken," Sesshomaru said and started to leave.
Despite the strong wish to ditch the human girl, Jaken came to Rin's side and tugged on her, "Let's go, Rin. Lord Sesshomaru is leaving."
No movement.
"Fine, imp!" Calling Rin an imp not admitting that he, himself, was the more impish of the two, Jaken cursed under his breath and staggered away trying to catch up to Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru walked slowly, very slowly, in hope that Rin could catch up to him. When her scent was growing faint, he realized she wasn't following. He stopped and looked back pensively.
No Rin, no where!
He continued walking. Then, he stopped. Then, he continued. Then, he stopped. Then, he continued.
When Sesshomaru reached the edge of the woods, he got so angry about something that he stopped abruptly and released a violent growl so loud that even the trees shook.
Jaken knew what that was all about.
"Mi Lord!" Jaken suggested in a voice like he was scared to speak, "If you miss her that much, perhaps you shou - "
"I DO NOT MISS HER!" Sesshomaru's red demonic eyes flared with rage.
"Ahem! Yes, yes, Mi Lord!" Jaken cleared his throat to stifle the laughter at his lord's whim. But it wasn't the whim that was laughable to Jaken, it was the fact that his lord was failing so miserably in denying it.
"GRRR! That foolish human girl!"
Sesshomaru turned around so quickly and strode back to where Rin was. He would kill her if she didn't follow this time. NO ONE, NO ONE, and RIN of all people, should reject Sesshomaru's kindness like that. In fact, he hadn't been kind to anyone beside Rin. So, she should feel really privileged.
To his surprise and concern, Rin wasn't there anymore. Though, she left a scent trail for him to follow.
The thick woods ended, and Sesshomaru came upon the village where there was a large gathering of people; some was crying; some was cussing at demons; some was just sitting there in prayer pose.
It was a funeral for the shoemaker that Sesshomaru had killed.
Little Rin walked toward the crowd of people. As soon as they saw her, it was like an explosion. People started to run toward her and cussed loudly at her.
"Her! She was the one traveling with the demon who had killed our shoemaker!"
Then, they hovered around her. A man pulled her up by the arm and started to do that motion like he was planning on beating her.
Standing at the edge of the woods, Sesshomaru was furious!
Well, not that he cared about Rin or anything; not that he would do anything to please or help the human girl. She was nothing! Nothing that he cared or loved!
But, she was HIS RIN! And NOBODY would dare to treat his possession like that.
With that decision, Sesshomaru closed his eyes to make him look so calm while he released his frustration in a powerful strike into the the woods, which cut down half of the trees therein and killed them instantly. Supposedly, killing the trees was less heartless , and that made it more forgivable.
Because if he didn't release that frustration into the trees, he would release it into the village people, which wouldn't help mend his relationship with Rin any.
Then, after killing things like the trees, he walked with a perfectly graceful composure toward the gathering and hurled a whip-like object to stop the man from hitting Rin.
The people saw Sesshomaru, and all scattered to run in every direction that led away from him. Jaken chased wildly like a maniac throwing fire from his Staff at the people while cussing, "Must Lord Sesshomaru teach you pathetic people a lesson?"
Sesshomaru came to Rin's side after the man had let her loose so the man could also run freely away afraid for his life. Sesshomaru scooped Rin up into his one arm. He carried her toward the shoemaker's body still not buried.
"If you so wish, I'll revive the shoemaker for you."
Rin looked at him with her eyes widened in surprise mixed with happiness, "You will?"
Sesshomaru put her down. He withdrew the Tenseiga. With one strike, he destroyed the minions of the underworld and revived the shoemaker, right before Rin's eyes. She placed her hands in her mouth gasping silently at her lord's magical sword.
Once again, Rin was frozen with Sesshomaru's action. But this time, it was with awe and happiness.
The shoemaker was revived.
Sesshomaru quickly scooped Rin into his arm. And in a ball of light, he flitted through the air before the shoemaker even had a chance to thank the person who had revived him.
When they were back in the woods away from the village, he lowered her down to the ground.
Rin looked up at him with innocent eyes, "Thank you for saving that shoemaker, Lord Sesshomaru."
He only looked at her without answering. He started to walk away from her, though he stopped. He hesitated the last sentence, but slowly said it anyway, "Come, Rin!"
Rin looked after reluctantly. She hesitated. But Jaken had made a decision for her. He came out from nowhere and pulled her arms as he ran to catch up to Sesshomaru. Jaken noticed that he was dragging her on the dirt ground which might raze her skin, but he didn't care. The human needed some pain as a punishment for all of his lord's recent heartache.
Rin finally gave up her pouting because of Jaken's rough but loving action. She giggled again, "Thank you Master Jaken, but I think I can walk now."
Sesshomaru was glad that Rin had finally followed, and secretly thanked Jaken for doing that which was beneath Sesshomaru's style - the action of dragging Rin along.
Sesshomaru glanced backward at Rin, "Rin, if you wish so, I will not kill unnecessarily anymore."