The Passing of Time
Chapter 1
They stood in the outskirts of a human village. He wore his usual armours, his tail hanging over one shoulder and the look on his face was without expression. She wore a new yukata for the occasion, a light blue one, with white stripes across the chest. The face of her eight-years-old self usually wore an expression of interest and endless fascination at the wonders of the world but that was all, at present, forgotten. Her mouth and eyes were pressed into a wicked grimace and tears streamed down her face. The green toad at her side clasped his hands above his ears to try to block out the piercing sound of her wailing. He found the exercise difficult, as in his hand he held the staff of two heads and in the other were the reins of the two-headed monster Ah-Un.
"Would you stop it, Rin, you brat!" the green youkai shouted with his loud, croaking voice.
"Rin is-" the girl said in between the sobbings. "Rin is very sorry, J-" another attack of wailing seized her before she could finish the sentence. "Jaken-sama."
The toad had an irritable look on his face when he quickly retorted: "Stop it, Rin, or else Sesshoumaru-sama might not come to get you when we are finished." When the girl's wailings abruptly ended, only occasional sobs breaking through, the green toad looked quite satisfied with himself. This, however, changed quickly when a hard foot was placed on his head. Sprawled across the dirt the toad mumbled a "I am so sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama" and bit down as the wailings once again commenced.
"Rin." The girl lifted her head, a look of inexplicable sorrow on her face but bit back the wailing as she regarded the white clad man who had just uttered her name. "It is time."
Rin could feel another sob break through at the man's words but she collected herself and reached into her yukata's obi to pull out a forget-me-not that she had spotted on the way toward the village, earlier that morning. She offered the flower to the armoured taiyoukai who accepted it and put it in the clevis between his armour and his sokutai. Rin looked at her master expectantly but when he showed no expression at her gift she was seized by another round of sobs.
"S-Sesshoumaru-sama", she stuttered. "Rin loves you!" Rin imagined for a second that she could see her master tense at her words but when she closed her eyes upon another fit of wailing the sensation was lost.
The words appeared to have had no impact upon the taiyoukai for he simply turned around and said in a voice as expressionless as his face had always been: "Jaken, it is time for us to go" and in a whirlwind he was gone, leaving behind the human girl who now cried loudly without holding back and the toad to bid his farewells.
Jaken jumped onto Ah-Un's back and looked down at the girl. Trying to make himself heard above her wailing he once again explained what was about to happen. "You insolent girl, we are going to war and the midst of fighting is a dangerous place for a girl. You will stay here and upon the end of the war Sesshoumaru-sama will come and get you". The wailing and crying had not in the least subsided and the toadyoukai irritably croaked a "Dah, never mind", before clutching the reins of Ah-Un and disappearing into the skies.
When Rin was alone she stopped wailing – not because the sadness had ended, but her throat had tightened up and she felt like she was suffocating. The tears still streamed down her face when she leapt to the ground and hit her chest hard with her small fists and clawing her face with her fingers. Soon she was surrounded with people who had seen the two-headed animal leave and they stared at Rin with wondrous eyes. Her sobbings returned as she came to realise that in this village she would always be known as the demon girl – and what hurt even more was that she now was in the care of these people whom would inevitably come to hate her.
As one of the bystanders reached down to pick her up she screamed but the man was strong and held onto her throughout her violent gesticulate and he carried her in to the village with a trail of amazed people following behind. In the arms of the man who smelled like her father - whom she nearly didn't remember – had once smelled, she calmed down and before they reached the village core she had exhaustedly fallen into deep slumber.